War's Song
by Legend Maker
Summary: The shadow of a cloaked musician, with a desire for medabot battle, falls over Ikki and co, and they will learn the past is a mine field, the present is a war zone, and the future is forever is doubt...
1. Back In Black

_**War's Song**_

Chapter 1: Back in Black

It was a quiet, cool night in Japan, the stars twinkling overhead like Earth's eternal guardians. A common occurrence.

His name was Chino. He was 12. He was a medafighter. Also common in this Japan we know of.

He was in the bad part of town. That wasn't so common. It fact, Chino had never wanted to visit this part of Tokyo (or wherever Medabots happens). Bad luck had caused him to make the first wrong turn, and pure stubbornness is what kept him on it. Now he was hopelessly lost.

That hadn't bothered him too much. If worse came to worst, he could always call his parents to pick him up. The fact that they would yell at him was what had kept him from doing it. However, considering the situation he had found himself in, he would have preferred to be yelled at.

His back was to the wall, literally, as the four figures closed in. They ranged from tiny to massive. They all wore sunglasses and the same bizarre rubber outfits with twin antenna sticking out of the hood that covered their heads. And they were all giggling.

Besides that, the similarities ended. The smallest had a shock of blonde hair that stood up like a horn, and appeared to have a pacifier in his mouth. The second was a woman, which was obvious due to the very strong lipstick she was wearing. The third was the biggest, a brute with thick lips, a scar over his right eye, and a rather dull expression on his face. The last appeared to be the leader (I guess Seaslug took over after Meda-Evil's defeat again), with a long bang of brown hair above his shades. It was him whom Chico had first seen, before the others had surrounded him.

Chico was, quite frankly, terrified. And that was exactly what Seaslug and his gang had counted on.

"Hee hee hee! Didn't you read the sign kid? This is Rubberrobo territory!" Seaslug said in his best tax voice (Yeah, tax. As in taxing, the crime of intimidating people into giving you things?)

Squidguts looked confused. "Uh boss, when did we put up a sign?"

His companions facevaulted.

"WHEN YOU WEREN'T LOOKING! Now kid, this is our turf. If you wanna pass through, you gotta pay the tax."

"Tax? What tax?" Chico whimpered.

"Oh…how about your metal? And all your Meta-parts as a bonus?" Seaslug said. This was easy! Dumb kids…

"N-no! My mom gave it to me…!"

"Then she can give you another! Give it!" Seaslug growled, leaning in. As if on cue, his three companions did the same. Chico tried to find a hole to hide in, but none surfaced. What would these bizarre people do to him if he kept refusing?

And then, slowly, music floated to his ears. It was strange enough to suddenly hear music at this time of night in this area of town, but this music was so…lovely. It clashed with the ugliness that confronted him.

The Rubberrobos were too busy mugging for Chico to notice the music at first, but eventually everyone did. Everyone except Seaslug, who was still trying to frighten Chico into giving up his Meda-parts.

The long cloak flapped gently in the slight breeze as the figure stepped out of the alleyway. He was a tall lean figure, totally wrapped on his cloak, as deep as the folds of night. His jeans and boots, only seen when the wind blew the cloak in the right direction, were also black. His face was lost under a hood, the features consumed in darkness from which a small flute poked. He looked like someone had decided to cross an artistic rendering of the Grim Reaper with one of Pan the goat god.

The music stopped as the figure removed the flute, and then his hand reached down to the ground and seized a small stone. He reared back and whipped it at Seaslug.

The rock careened off the lead RR's head, the thick covering protecting him somewhat but not keeping him from feeling pain. He reared back and screamed, and Chino took that as his opportunity to leave, as he darted into the new opening and broke from the group. Seaslug barely noticed, as he turned angry eyes on the cloaked figure. The figure's head was watching the kid flee: when he was gone, he turned back to the Rubberrobos.

"Music may sooth the savage beast, but it appears a rock is needed to get its attention." The figure said. It had a smooth, cool voice, like fine wine. A male, from the tone.

"Who the heck are you? Do you know who you are messing with?"

"I'm not sure. It kind of looks like a bunch of rejects from a "My Favorite Martian" convention. What are you wearing, the clothing version of a lightning rod?" the figure said, crossing his arms. His shirt was black too, and he wore black fingerless gloves. His face remained hidden in the shadows of his hood. If clothes made the man, this man was a wraith.

Seaslug steamed. Not only had this stranger robbed him of a medal and medaparts, he was insulting him as well!

"I'll tell you! We are the Rubberrobo gang, an invincible force! We are evil through and through!" Seaslug yelled.

"Yeah!" the other three all said and once. "Why don't you go take a long walk off a short pier, creep?" Shrimplips added.

"Why don't you take a short jump off a long cliff, shorty?" the figure said. "I know what you are. Pure evil, yet you're trying to get medaparts from a kid? Pure evil, my foot. You're just a bunch of bullies. I HATE BULLIES."

"Oh yeah? Well since you scared the kid off, I think we should take your parts instead!" Seaslug said.

"My parts? Look Mork…"

"MY NAME IS SEASLUG!"

"Even dumber. If you Rubberdodos…"

"RUBBERROBOS!"

"More fitting is Rubberdodos. You're about to become extinct. I came here looking for a challenge. But you will have to do. You want my parts, you'll have to Robattle me for them. Your dumb scare tactics won't work on me."

"Gladly." Seaslug said, grinning evilly as he brought up his Medawatch. "TRANSPORT WHITESWORD!"

(He used it in X-treme Measures)

A beam of orange light shot out of the medawatch and materialized into a medabot with white armour and a sword. "C'mon guys, let's teach this guy a lesson!"

"TRANSPORT GOKUDO!" Shrimplips yelled. His medawatch transported a red medabot with gold trim and hydraulic arms.

"C'mon Spidar!" Gillgirl added. (Meet your Meta-Maker, and since Shrimplips has Gokudo…) Hers was a green and yellow Medabot that, unlike its bipedal companions, had six multi-jointed legs and a flat-multi-eyed head.

Seaslug looked over to his only female companion. "SPIDAR! WHAT HAPPENED TO SEAGURU?"

"I don't know. With our old boss betraying us and the mess with Giganko and those police I lost her." Gillgirl answered, looking depressed.

"Oh. Sorry. I just thought Squidguts was the only one dumb enough to…" Seaslug blurted out before he realized what he was saying. Gillgirl looked even more depressed, but she sucked it up quickly. She had a job to do, no matter the Medabot.

Squidguts stood scratching his head.

"What was the name of my replacement again?" he asked. His companions facevaulted again.

"IT WAS LANDMOTOR, MORON!" Seaslug "helpfully" said.

"Oh yeah! Transport Landmotor! (Ban All Medabots). I miss Gobanko, I always remembered his name…" Squidguts muttered. A small car with a robot head materialized, and a moment later it transformed (More then meets the eye!) into a white and blue car medabot.

"Heh heh heh! This is the gang you have dared to defy! We're going to make you rue the day you messed with the Rubberrobo gang!" Seaslug said, as he and his companions lined up. Their medabots did likewise.

The figure shook his head.

"Poor fools…let me tell you something, Seaslug. You are not powerful. Picking on others does not make you powerful. You pick on the young, you're pathetic. You pick on the weak, you're even weaker. And now you're trying to pick on me…"

The figure raised his right arm and yanked down his shirt sleeve to reveal a VERY fancy medawatch, which looked about three times as advanced as the ones the Rubberrobos wore.

"YOU'RE HISTORY!" The figure yelled as he pushed a button. "TRANSPORT…STARKILLER!"

A white beam shot of out the figure's medawatch, and in a flash of light, a new medabot appeared.

It was a black and blue medabot, with black armour marked with jagged blue markings. It had armor on its legs, forearms, and chest, and pointed edges of extra armour on the knees, elbows, shoulders, and head, angled back away from the face. The medabot appeared to be wearing shades of jagged black armor as well. It had a pair of hands, but the bulk on the forearm armour suggested the weapons it hid in there. It was all jagged edges. Surprisingly, the body-type suggested it was female.

Shrimplips blinked behind his shades. _What kind of medabot is THAT?

* * *

_

(The medal swings across the screen)

STARKILLER

Type: Unique

Specialty: Adaptability, Nova Attacks

* * *

"Ohhhhhh, fancy!" Seaslug mocked.

"How do you want it?" The figure said, ignoring the insult. "One on one? Two-score? Or all four at once?"

"All four…MWA HAH HA! You think you can beat all four of us at once?"

"You scared to find out?" the figure retorted. Seaslug growled.

"Ok then. GET HIM!"

The four medabots charged forward, Gokudo and Landmotor (which had converted itself back into a car) taking the lead. The figure brought his watch close to his face.

"Let's take their measure. Maybe it won't be such a disappointment. Starkiller, SPEED MODE!"

"Right!" Starkiller said, and the armour on her body suddenly began to vanish, being drawn in and stored away. Within a second she had about a fifth of the protection she had had before. Then roller blades suddenly rose out of the bottom of the her feet even as rockets emerged and fired, and Starkiller shot down the street at high speed, leaving a trail of scorched ground.

"Gokudo, hammer her!" Shrimplips ordered. The medabot shot out its arms, but Starkiller leapt up at amazing speed and landed on the arms, using them as rails. Gokudo's mechanical eyes widened as Starkiller rocketed up his arms before she kicked him in the face. Gokudo flew back even as she leapt off and bounced off Spidar's head, as good as Mario could have done it. Leaping off, she spun and rocketed around Whitesword, spinning at high speed and dodging his slashes with ease. Landmotor charged as her, and she blasted away from Whitesword as it gave chase.

"Ha ha! My medabot's faster then yours!" Squidguts taunted as it began to gain ground on the rocket-powered Starkiller.

"Yeah, but mine can jump!" The figure said, and Starkiller did just that. Gokudo's eyes followed her up just before Landmotor crashed into him.

"ARGH! Squidguts, you damaged my medabot!"

"Duh, sorry. Mine got hurt too. See?"

"It's about to hurt a lot worse!" the figure said, as Starkiller twisted.

And ran right onto the web that Spidar had laid on the ground. The sticky substance was yanked up into the wheels and clogged them, bringing Starkiller to a dead stop and nearly pitching her onto her face.

"Argh! My feet are stuck!" Starkiller said.

"SHE'S TRAPPED! GET HER! GET HER!" Seaslug bellowed, jumping up and down and waving his arms. The three other medabots converged on the trapped female, readying their weapons.

"Starkiller! Switch to armour mode!" the figure ordered. Starkiller withdrew the rollerblades and rockets as Landmotor fired surface to air missiles and Whitesword and Gokudo got in range to slash and pound.

The vanished armour reappeared, and then doubled and tripled, sealing all of Starkiller's body behind a wall of blue metal. Her forearm armour clumps expanded even more, forming huge shields that she brought up and around her.

The missiles connected, exploding in a plume of fire and smoke. A few seconds later Whitesword ran in and began slashing rapidly at the shields while Gokudo pounded on them.

The figure wasn't looking at that spectacle. He was watching the meters on his medawatch as they slowly began to go down. Whitesword and Gokudo continued to hammer on the shields, which began to be chipped and dented.

"Oh no! My shields are being destroyed!" the figure said.

"They are?" Whitesword said, stopping his onslaught to take a look, even as Gokudo drew back his arms for another strike and Landmotor prepared another missile.

"NO YOU IDIOT! NOW!" The figure yelled, and Starkiller suddenly swung her shield out and around, smashing into Whitesword and sending him flying into Gokudo. Seaslug yelled in anger as the two crashed together and his meters went down.

"Just as I expected. BORING! Starkiller, let's wrap this up! WARRIOR MODE!"

"Oh yeah!" Starkiller said, as the excess armour was pulled back into her. In a few seconds she looked like she did when she had first appeared. A section of her back opened and shot something out, and Starkiller whirled and caught it in mid-air. It kind of looked like a shower handle, before she turned and twin beams of white-energy shot out of it and formed into a twin-bladed laser sword, like a deadly tuning fork.

"The bug first! NOVA SWORD!"

"AH! Spidar, defend yourself!" Gillgirl said. Spidar rasied his/her arm, but that was all she got to do as Starkiller leapt at the medabot and slashed out. The dual blade went through the arm and then through Spidar. Gillgirl shrieked as her medabot exploded, the faint clang of the medal being ejected out lost in the din.

Starkiller flipped and landed.

"The car next! NOVA LANCE!"

Starkiller tossed her blade up as Landmotor turned around, and then she slammed her fists and forearms together as the blade was caught between them. Parts shot out of the arms and into the blade, and it doubled into length even as the rollerblades and rockets re-emerged. Landmotor tried to convert itself back into a car, but Starkiller was quicker as she blasted at Landmotor, impaling him on the laser blade and ramming him into a wall. Starkiller yanked the blade up even as she flipped up and away and Landmotor exploded too, her arms snapping open and the blade flying free. She landed and caught it, even as Landmotor's scorched medal landed beside her.

Seaslug clenched his fists in anger as the figure cocked his head.

"You think you've won? WE HAVE JUST BEGUN TO FIGHT!" Seaslug bellowed. "You with me Shrimplips?"

"You bet!" Shrimplips said, as Gokudo and Whitesword stood side by side and got ready to attack again.

"Finish it. NOVA CANNON!" the figure yelled. Starkiller leapt into the air and thrust out her hand, flipping the sword back and against her forearm armour. The sword was assimilated into the armour even as it shifted and warped, forming into the barrel of a cannon that glowed a bright white.

"AH! Gokudo, you have thicker armour! Take that!" Shrimplips ordered. Gokudo sweatdropped (or did the medabot equivalent of a sweatdrop) but he listened, putting himself in front of Whitesword.

"See ya, wouldn't wanna be ya." Starkiller said as she aimed, and then a giant bolt of white energy blasted from her cannon, throwing her backwards.

The blast struck Gokudo and blew him backwards, right into Whitesword. As all the Rubberrobos shrieked in surprise, the blast continued, carrying them both back into a wall. With a shuddering explosion, the two were blown up by the massive power of the blast.

Starkiller landed, the sword flipping out of her arm and re-igniting, as the last two medals clattered on the ground.

The whole fight had taken less then a minute.

The Rubberrobos gaped at the figure, as Starkiller leapt over to his side.

"Nicely done m'lady." The figure said.

"How…what…YOU CHEATED! YOU CHEATED!" Seaslug yelled, jumping up and down.

"I didn't. That's another thing about bullies: they never know when they've lost. Now get out of here, or my medabot will show you just how much of a bully SHE can be."

"Uhhh…huh…uh…" Seaslug gulped. Starkiller did a fancy twirl and aimed her dual blade at the Rubberrobos. "YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE LAST OF US!"

Starkiller picked up a brick and in a blur of motion, sliced it into four pieces.

"………..You've seen the last of us! BYE! RUN AWAY!" Seaslug said, and he and his companions took off and vanished. The figure chuckled.

"Not much of a challenge, but I needed the exercise. That armour you devised is magnificent master." Starkiller said, as she put her sword away.

"Why thank you. I'm glad you like it, because you'll probably be using it a lot. But that's what I devised it for." The figure said, as he walked over to the corner the kid had run around.

Just as he thought. The kid was still there, having watched the entire thing. _Children. Too curious for their own good._

"Wow! Thanks mister!" Chico said.

"Not a problem. Just try to avoid those idiots in the future."

"Ok! Wow, what a medabot! Where did you buy her?" Chico said, looking Starkiller over.

"I didn't. I built her from scratch."

"You did? Wow, that must have taken…weeks!"

"Longer. Now kid, I assume you don't live around her, so here…" the figure said, as he passed the kid some bills. "Call a cab."

"Thanks mister! Hey, what's your name?"

The figure cocked his head, and then withdrew the small instrument he had slipped up his sleeve.

"Call me…Flute."

"Ok! Thanks Flute!" Chico said as he ran off. He couldn't wait to tell his friends. The figure, who had dubbed himself Flute, smiled under his cloak and turned.

"Shall we go Starkiller? We have a lot of work to do. I hope you're up to it."

"I'm up to anything." Starkiller said as she fell into step beside her owner.

The two strolled down the street, alone in the night.

"Master?"

"Yes?"

"Why Flute? Why not your name?"

"Because until I am done, that is not my name. It hasn't been for years." Flute said, thinking. _Eight years. Eight years of testing, watching, observing, all that sweat and blood and tears. But it is done. I have created a masterpiece out of my failure. No more._

"I built you to be the ultimate medabot Starkiller. It's time to find out. Japan is full of challengers, worthy ones, strong ones. Did you get the list before I called you?"

"Yes sir."

"Good."

Flute slipped into an alleyway and climbed up a nearby ladder. Starkiller followed him up and stood by him as he observed the city of Tokyo spread out and rising above him.

"Get ready, fellow medafighters. Flute and Starkiller have arrived. Prepare for war!"

A whirl of black cloak later, and Flute and Starkiller were gone.

All that was left was a faint and soft melody that played through the night.

* * *

Who is Flute? And how quick will it be before he butts heads with our heroes? Fine out next time on "Deeper Shadows!" More Medabots, More Power! 


	2. Deeper Shadows

Chapter 2: Deeper Shadows

Metabee sat on the couch, surfing the TV channels with the remote. And he was bored out of his mind.

Metabee was an enigma among medabots. Virtually all of them had the same personality trait: they listened to their masters, their medafighters, no matter what. They could be all sorts of other things, from sweet to funny to nasty to weird to bitter, but they always had that trait.

Metabee didn't. As far as he was concerned, the only one who was ever gonna give him orders was himself. But he was still a medabot, and hence he and his so called owner were always butting heads over everything, from how to fight to how to fix him to how Ikki should fold his socks.

True, he cared about Ikki. He was a great kid, and a pretty good medafighter. But then again, he was the one out there shooting the gun and taking the blows. Ikki was off to the side yelling things into a watch. As far as he was concerned, that automatically gave him the right to be free.

Well, he was free, all right. Free out of ideas on what to do. It was the morning, and nothing good was on. The soap operas all came on in the afternoon, and all the good commercials came on then and the evening as well. All that was on was talk shows, and Metabee had watched five minutes of that nonsense before turning away in disgust. How could anyone find that entertaining?

Sighing, he turned the TV off. Well, Salty (that IS the dog's name, right?) was napping and Ikki's mom was off shopping. He may as well head off to Ikki's school and bother him. There was sure entertainment in that, and heck, there might even be a Robattle in it for him! Nothing like keeping his skills sharp…

Metabee leapt off the couch and suddenly winced as a pang of discomfort ran up his arm. While as a Metabot he technically couldn't feel pain, his body was designed to register damage. And this feeling had been bothering him since he had defeated Giganko: little jolts of "pain" in the right shoulder joint of his Tinpet. He had taken quite the beating in that whole affair, and his whole body had suffered damage. Even after being fixed, there were still these jolts…

But the jolts, whatever always passed, so Metabee figured they would go away. They hadn't yet, but Metabee was sure waiting it out would be better then the alternative: telling Ikki. It would send the kid on a combined power trip/overprotective jag, and Metabee could do without that.

"Metabee! You have to listen to me! If you did you wouldn't be damaged! Now let me fix you! You want to be polished? You want…BLECH!" Metabee said in his best Ikki impression as he left the house. His shoulder had stopped aching, and he soon forgot it. He wondered what Ikki was doing.

Ikki was being blitzkrieged by Erika on the playground. For once he didn't mind, for his friend actually had some very interesting information for once.

"He beat the ENTIRE Rubberrobo Gang?" Ikki said incredulously. True, his rubber suited nemesis's were rather incompetent, but even they had given a lot of people trouble in Robattling, including him.

"Yeah! Chino was there, he saw it all!" Erika said, excited. The first thing Chino had done when he had gotten to school was spill the beans on this Robattle he had seen featuring a mystery medafighter and his incredibly powerful Medabot. Erika had smelt a big story, and the second school was over she was gonna track it down and get all the information. Until then, she might as well tell Ikki. He would definitely be interested too. And he was.

"And Chino couldn't see his face?"

"He kept it hidden. What a mystery! I can see it now. "Mystery Medafighter Threatens All of School's Medabots!"

"Um Erika, why would he want to do that? And if so, where is he? Is this his coffee break from threatening the school?" Ikki said.

"He was a point Miss." Brass added.

"It's news! Grab their attention now, make sense of it later!"

Ikki and Brass facevaulted.

Metabee strolled down the road, whistling a tune he'd heard somewhere or other. The tune wafted up the still air and carried all the way to the roof of a nearby building.

A flute began to play, mimicking the tune. Starkiller and her medafighter watched the lone medabot walk down the sidewalk even as flute continued his melody that Metabee had started.

"A medabot without his medafighter. Rather rare sight." Starkiller said. Flute stopped playing.

"Perhaps. But wherever a Medabot is, the Medafighter is sure to be close behind." Flute said.

"Shall we challenge him Master?"

"No…he doesn't look like much." Flute said, standing and slipping his flute up his sleeve as he wrapped his cloak around him. "I would rather check on the rumours of a "legendary Medafighter" that supposedly hangs around my old school."

"Master, may I say, that rumours may just be that: rumours" Starkiller said as she and her medafighter headed off the roof.

"Maybe. But better to be safe then sorry. Those people we fought last night were sorely lacking in skill…"

"Maybe that Medabot has a great deal of skill?"

"Then I'm sure we'll cross paths. And then you and he will lock horns. And you'll win."

"I'll win."

And they were gone, as Metabee turned the corner, never knowing they had been there.

News spread fast, especially concerning Medabots, and Ikki wanted to get all the information he could before it began to get distorted and warped. So he'd gone straight to the source: Chino. To his surprise, he had gotten pretty much the same story Erika had given.

"Less then a minute?" he asked, incredulous.

"Oh yeah. He chopped two like shish kabob and then barbecued the other two. I could FEEL the power in that cannon. I was considering challenging him afterward, but I changed my mind after I saw him fight. He'd have taken me apart."

"REALLY…?" Ikki said, putting his hand to his chin as if in deep thought. He wandered off from Chino, hearing people chatter all around him about this Medafighter.

"IKKI!"

Ikki's heart nearly leapt out of his chest as Metabee swung down and was suddenly hanging in front of him by his knees from a branch in the tree.

"AHHHHHHH! DON'T DO THAT!"

"Oh get over it. What's up, besides me?"

"Didn't you hear?" Ikki said, and told him what he had heard. Looking very interested, Metabee swung down and landed in front of his medafighter.

"A medafighter that took out the entire Rubberrobo gang? You sure it wasn't Phantom Renegade?"

"Nope." Erika said, appearing at Ikki's side. "My sources tell me he was taller and had a different voice. Sounds like an adult, maybe in his mid-twenties."

"Hey, maybe it's Phantom Renegade's evil twin! He must have shown up to collect his stolen inheritance, or maybe…!"

"METABEE! THIS IS NOT A SOAP OPERA!"

"Well SORRRRRRRRRRRY! Maybe you have a better idea?"

"Who cares who he is? What matters is that we have to find him and challenge him to a Robattle!"

"Now you're talking! I'll teach this flute player a new tune: The Metabee Bop!" Metabee said, as he shadow-boxed.

"Assuming you can find him." Erika said, as she scribbled down the new title of "Mystery Medafighter Phantom Renegade's Twin?"

"Find him? How hard can it be to find a cloaked flute player? It's not like you see them on a regular basis."

The bell rang, and the children began filing back into the school.

"We'll look into this later." Ikki said, as he followed them. "C'mon Metabee."

"Forget it! I have to train!" Metabee said, and began running in place.

"Metabee, you're a robot! You don't have any muscles!"

"Hey, I don't tell you have to Robattle!"

"Maybe but I'm telling YOU…"

Erika left the two to their argument. Maybe it would be in Ikki's best interest if he DID let Metabee train. If this Medafighter was as skilled as they said, he would need all the help and skill he could get…

"May I help you sir?" said the guard at the entrance of the Rosewood private school. He was suspicious and perhaps rightly so. He had never seen a man wearing these kinds of clothes before, especially such a concealing cloak. If he was hiding something, it could be bad.

"I would like to come in." Flute said.

"I am sorry sir. Only students and…"

Flute dug into a pocket and produced a piece of paper. 

"I am a graduate of this establishment, and my parents have been quite helpful to you with fundraising in the past. Surely that will grant me entrance?"

The guard examined the paper. Sure enough, it was a diploma, given to the cloaked man about ten years ago. It was authentic as well: he had worked here long enough to know the unique style Rosewood put on all their products.

"I see. Very well sir. Shall I call the school and tell them of your coming?"  
"No. In fact, I would appreciate it if you never saw me. At all." Flute said. The guard started to reply, and then Flute was holding a thick wad of bills in front of him.

"You're not going to cause trouble?"

"No."

The money vanished, as the guard went into his station and opened the gate. Flute walked through, Starkiller following him.

"Was it necessary to bribe him Master?"

"Just making sure the wrong information doesn't reach the wrong people Starkiller. You know…"

And then Flute nearly walked right into the young girl as she tried to leave through the gate the second he was coming through it. She gave a small cry of surprise as she dropped her books. A second later, Starkiller had grabbed them, just before they had hit the ground.

"Here." Starkiller said, as she handed them back to the girl, a young pretty redhead in pigtails.

"Thank you…oh." Karen said as she looked at Flute. Her heart fluttered a bit in nervousness, and she wondered if she should call the guard.

"Sorry miss. Are you ok?" Flute said.

"Yes…I just wasn't expecting…sir, are you ok? Why do you wear that cloak?"

"Fashion statement, miss…?"

"Karen."

"Karen. My lord…" Flute said as he fully walked out of the gate and looked at the amusement park he could see in the distance. "When I went here this place had great excess, but this is RIDICULOUS… "

"You're a graduate?"

"Yes am I. I assume you go here, Karen?"

"Yes I do."

"Then perhaps you can help me. I'm looking for this legendary medafighter…"

Karen suddenly looked exasperated, an expression not common for her. She sighed.

"Sir, might I ask if you have been out of town?"

"Yes I have. Why?"

"Well…" Karen said, and told Flute of the exact nature of this legendary medafighter, or more exactly, how something had acquired a life of its own from a simple observation. When she was done, Flute muttered angrily.

"So it was just you and your healing medabot?"

"Yes. Just that. I'm far from a legendary medafighter. I don't even Robattle. It's just that some friends of mine came here some time ago looking for the same thing you were, and I thought they said they would dispel the rumour when they learned the truth. I guess you didn't hear that."

"I didn't. You were right Starkiller: Just rumours. Well thank you child, for your help. You are sure you are ok?"

"Yes, thank you." Karen said. This "Flute" may have had a creepy air, with the black clothing and the hidden face, but he was a gentleman. Or so it seemed.

"Come, Starkiller, I guess we will have to look elsewhere for a challenge…" Flute said as he turned to leave.

"Maybe not." Came a new voice. Flute turned to see a boy standing off in the distance. He must have shown up while Flute was talking to Karen. He looked about Karen's age, with black hair and nice clothes.

"My name is Koji. You came here looking for a Robattle?"

"I came here looking for a challenge, which I thought a legendary medafighter would provide."

"Well there may be no legendary medafighter, but maybe, just maybe, there is a challenge for you, Flute. I'm the No. 2 ranked medafighter in Japan!"

Even without seeing his face, Karen could tell Flute was interested, as he turned to face Koji.

"Really? You are the second best in this country?"

"I am. You want a challenge? I'm quite willing to give you one. Be warned though, it will be one you can't overcome!" Koji said, as he brought up his medawatch. "TRANSPORT SUMILIDON!"

An orange beam flew from Koji's watch and a second later his medabot appeared. Flute took in the yellow/gold-white-blue-black coloured medabot, with a thick fist-type weapon on his left arm and a three-pronged sword-claw on its right arm.

"Hmmmm, Saber-tooth Tiger type. Nice design as well." Flute said, as he pulled back his sleeve to reveal his ultra-high-tech medawatch "But nothing you can't handle, right Starkiller?"

"You bet your bottom dollar." Starkiller said as she stepped in front of her medafighter. "I'm ready!"

"Then, it's agreed!"

Flute's head cocked at the sudden voice, and then he squawked in surprise as Mr. Referee popped out of a hole in the ground dressed in a gopher costume. "I hearby…"

"Who the heck are YOU?" Flute exclaimed.

"You MUST be an out of towner. I am Mr. Referee! I will referee this Robattle!"

"Why the heck were you doing under the ground in a gopher costume?"

"…..Mind your own business! As I was saying, I hearby declare this a submission robattle between Sumilidon and Starkiller! The rules are simple: the first medabot to stop the other from functioning wins! The loser must then submit one medapart to the winner, for keeps!"

"Uh, Referee Man or whatever, can I…?" Flute tried to say.

"MEDAFIGHTERS READY!?!" Mr.Referee bellowed as he tossed off the gopher costume. Flute sighed and raised his watch. "MEDABOTS, ROBATTLE!"

"Attack Sumilodon!" Koji ordered.

"Right!" Sumilodon said, as he charged at Starkiller.

"Starkiller, armour mode! Take his measure!" Flute countered. The armour surrounded Starkiller and she raised her shields in front of her as Sumilidon slashed. The Flexor-sword part raked across the shields.

Flute frowned as he watched his meters drop. 

"Attack again!"

"Take this! SHADOW SWORD!" Sumilidon yelled, and lashed out. Flute's eyes widened as the meters showing his shields dropped more then he had anticipated.

"We can't keep taking blows like that! Change of plans! Let discretion be the better part of valor!"

Starkiller shoved Sumilidon away from her as her excess and normal armour retracted into her body, and ducked under the following slash as her rockets fired and blasted her away from Sumilidon. She rocketed for the nearest tree and spun around it, and as Sumilidon turned around she leapt, kicking him in the face with all her might.

"Warning! Head damaged!" Koji's medawatch announced. He frowned as Starkiller blasted away from Sumilidon again, leaving a cloud of dust as she did a tight turn and blasted at him from another angle. Her punch caught Sumilidon in the chest, but Sumilidon managed his own blow this time, catching the female medabot with a glancing blow to her left arm.

"Warning! Arm damaged 25 percent." Flute's medawatch announced. Now it was the cloaked man's turn to look unhappy (not that anyone could see his expression anyway). This kid was good.

But he was better.

"I though school would never end!" Ikki said as he bounded out the doors, final bell ringing in his ears and Erika right on his heels. "METABEE!"

"Took you long enough!" Metabee said as he dropped out of the tree he had been sitting in. Ikki looked at him wryly.

"What happened to training?"

"I was doing it when I realized I will always be better then whoever this flute guy is, so I was wasting my time! Yeah, it's hard being this good, but I try…" Metabee said.

"And fail." Ikki said. Metabee did a double take.

"GIYIYGIIYIYIGIYI! (You know, that strange noise he makes when he's annoyed) Don't make me play my warm up tune on you, Ikki!"

"You're out of tune, buster!" Ikki countered.

"Guys!"

Ikki completely forgot about his fight with Metabee at the sound of Karen's voice, as he turned to sweep her off her feet. Only she nearly did that to him as she ran into the schoolyard and nearly into Ikki, Neutranurse on her heels.

"Yeep! Watch it Karen!" Metabee said.

"Ignore him. Do whatever you like." Ikki said, trying to be suave. Behind him, both Metabee and Erika smacked their face into their palms and muttered, while Brass and Neutranurse tried to figure out what was going on.

"Guys, I have a problem. I was at my school and this cloaked guy showed up and he challenged Koji and it was going fine but then the cloaked guy got merciless and…" Karen said in a big rush.

"WHOA! CLOAKED GUY? Did he play a flute?"

"I think I saw him with a flute…"

"Target acquired! Time for a Metaboppin'!" Metabee said, and ran off.

"HEY! WAIT FOR ME!" Ikki yelled as he took off after his Metabot. Erik ran after them as well, trying to write down stuff, get her equipment out, and run all at the same time, Brass at her heels.

 Karen and Neutranurse watched the fleeing foursome with some confusion.

"Guess they're running to help." Neutranurse said.

"I think the only thing Metabee wants to help is himself to a Robattle." Karen said. "Men!"

"SHADOW SWORD!" Sumilidon yelled, but his devastating attack missed as Starkiller leapt up in a fancy flip and hit the ground running, er, rolling. Koji growled. How the hell did Flute's medabot manage to dodge that?

"Is your Medabot going to run away all day or stand and fight?" he yelled. Flute ignored the young man, and Koji got even angrier. "OK SUMILIDON! IF HE WANTS A MARATHON, YOU GIVE IT TO HIM!"

"You got it Koji!" Sumilidon said, as he raced after the rocket-powered Starkiller. His legs, despite having no skates, were quite good, and he began gaining ground.

"Hold…" Flute said, as Sumilidon caught up to Starkiller.

"Get ready to finish it!" Koji ordered. Sumilidon began preparing a strong attack that would take out Starkiller as he closed the distance to four feet.

"Hold…" Flute repeated. Now it was two feet. Another foot and…  
"ATTACK!" Koji ordered.

"YAAAAHHHHH!" Sumilidon yelled, and swung…

And Starkiller reached the gate wall, and with a quick leapt she was up and on it, blasting right up the wall. Sumilidon's attack struck the stone dead on, and his arm shuddered as part of the gate shattered.

"Ho ho! Nice move! Too bad your opponent isn't THE WALL! NOW!" Flute ordered. Starkiller flipped off the wall, and as she slowly spun backwards her rocket-blades retracted as she switched to warrior mode. Sumilidon, still facing the wall, tried to turn, but couldn't as Starkiller finished her flip and lanced her legs out, slamming both heels into the back of Sumilidon's head and driving his face into the wall, squashed between the gate and her feet.

"Warning! Head damaged fifty percent!" Koji's watch said. Starkiller landed gracefully and her twin bladed laser sword popped out. She caught and ignited it.

"SUMILIDON LOOK OUT!" Koji yelled.

"NOVA SWORD!"

Sumilidon turned and took the whole brunt of the blow on his left arm, a devastating slash that tore through the armour like it was tissue paper.

"Warning!  Left arm damaged 100 percent! Arm function ceased." Koji's watch said. He growled.

"Finish him!" Flute ordered.

"I'M NOT FINISHED YET!" Sumilidon yelled, and slashed out himself. Starkiller saw the blow and dodged away, but she still took a nasty slash across her chest, tossing her backwards.

"Warning! Heavy damage!" Flute's medawatch intoned.

"FINISH IT WITH ANOTHER SHADOW SWORD!" Koji ordered.

"This game is over, lady!" Sumilidon said as he charged. Starkiller flipped to her feet. She looked at Flute. He nodded, and she raised her sword.

"SHADOW SWORD!" Sumilidon yelled, as he attacked.

"NOVA SWORD!" Starkiller yelled at the same time as she attacked.

The air rang with a terrible clanging noise that hurt Koji's ears. He winced, and then saw Starkiller had intercepted Sumilodon's blow in mid-strike. Now the two were locked in war of strength, each trying to finish their respective attack.

"C'mon Sumilidon! You can do it!"

Sumilidon redoubled his efforts, but Starkiller did the same. Koji did his best, jumping up and down like a champion cheerleader and yelling all the support he could. Flute was calm, glancing back and forth.

"Strong and honorable…why couldn't I have fought someone like him in the finals…" Flute whispered to himself. "C'mon Starkiller. Know that you are the best! You cannot fail!"

"I can't fail…I'm the best…the best…" Starkiller said. Sumilidon's arm groaned in strain, but the medabot would not back down.

In the end, the deciding factor was that Sumilidon only had one arm. Starkiller had two, and with a shriek, she brought all their strength to bear on her blade.

Sumilidon's Flexor Sword snapped as the laser blade broke through the clawed weapon.

"NOVA SWORD!"

"NOOOOOOOOO!" Koji wailed as Starkiller's sword slashed across Sumilidon's chest and sent him flying backwards with a cry of pain. He hit the ground hard, and the back of his armour popped open, the metal clattering out onto the ground.

"FUNCTION CEASED! The winner is, Starkiller!" Mr. Referee said. Flute brought down his Medawatch and sighed in relief. Close. But that only counted in horseshoes and hand grenades.

"Like I said Starkiller. Best there is." Flute said, as he walked to his medabot's side, watching Koji run over to his fallen Medabot.

"Best there was." Starkiller said, as she sheathed her sword. "And best there ever will be."

"Amen, m'lady."

"Sumilidon…ah man…" Koji groaned as he retrieved the medal and popped it in his watch. "You ok?"

"Ohhhhh…I'm fine Koji. Don't worry yourself." Sumilidon said from the watch.

Koji sighed, and then feeling a flash of anger at losing, he looked at Flute, and then at Mr.Referee.

"Hey! Is that legal? I thought it was against the rules to change parts in the middle of a match?" (Er, has anyone done that in the official battles and not the fight for your life ones?)

"Uh…technically…hmmmm, let me check!" Mr. Referee said, as he pulled a large book from someplace on his person. He paged through it as Koji inspected the damage. Pretty bad, but nothing a hard-fought Robattle wouldn't cause. And that had been a hard fought one.

And he had lost. The taste was bitter. First Ikki and now…

"While it is illegal to change parts, it is not illegal for parts to have more then one function, which was the case here." Mr.Referee said. "This Robattle's result stands." And with that he was gone, probably off to referee another fight.

"I made sure all my construction was within the rules. Is your medabot ok kid?"  
"Yeah…but…who are you? What is heck kind of medabot…how…?"

"Name's Flute. You're good kid. Really good. But…" Flute said as he turned to leave. "I think you need a little more practice."

"Hey! Don't you want a part?"

"I don't need any of your parts. Keep them. Nothing you have could be of any use to me. See you later, Koji, and better luck next time…"

Koji steamed as Flute strolled off, and then music from his namesake began to float on the air from him. A short little victory tune. Koji sighed. Just wait, he would fix Sumilidon and then…

He may very well lose again. What was up with that? And why the cloak?

Koji was trying to fix Sumilidon when Ikki and the others finally arrived. Neutranurse had taken one look and had begun healing Sumilidon.

"HE BEAT YOU? YOU?" Ikki said incredulously.

"YES, YES! CAN YOU STOP REPEATING IT! Salt in the wound, you know." Koji said.

"Now THIS is news. The Rubberrobos are one thing, but Koji…!" Erika said. She began frantically scribbling titles.

"I don't know about you Ikki, but this gives me pause. But that passes. We have definitely got to mix it up with this guy!" Metabee said, the concept that Starkiller had bested Sumilidon no deterrent to his enthusiasm.

"Don't be so arrogant Ikki. I thought I could handle this guy, but he gave me a run for my money and took it in the end. He knows how to Robattle. Oh god, how he knows. It's like he knew half my moves before I could make them." Koji said.

"And he didn't want a Medapart?"

"Nope. Said he didn't need it. I don't know whether to be further insulted or relieved…on the other hand, I have to replace Sumilidon's Flexor Sword. Oh well, at least I can do that with no problem."

 Neutranurse had finished her repairs, and Koji popped Sumilidon's medal back in. The medabot began trying to cheer up his somewhat depressed master.

"Where'd he go anyway? If we catch him, I'll take 'em right now!" Metabee said. He started shadow-boxing again and winced as the wave of discomfort ran up his right arm again. He glanced at Ikki and was relieved when he saw the boy looking at Karen and Koji. If he noticed his discomfort…

"He went that way, out the gate. God knows where he could be now. Probably looking for another challenge. He sounded hardcore for those. He hadn't heard the truth about the legendary medafighter, which is why he came here. I kinda wish he had known the truth." Koji said.

Metabee glanced at Ikki.  
"Are you pondering what I'm pondering, Metabee?" Ikki said.

"Smart intelligent medafighter out of touch with local news and looking for challenges? Gee, who do you he could be looking for next?" Metabee said. "Well then, that eases it. We'll find him, and then we'll find this Flute. And we'll teach that Medabum a lesson in Robattling." Metabee said.

"Who will he be looking for?" Brass said.

"Isn't it obvious? He'll be hunting for…"

"Rokusho?" Flute said. "That's his name?"  
"Yep. He was supposedly built by Dr. Hushi, who designed the whole concept of Medabots. From what I hear, he's VERY strong. But for some reason, he dislikes Robattling. Plus he wanders around a lot, so he may be hard to find, Master." Starkiller said. Flute finished the repairs he had been making and closed the panel on Starkiller's left arm.

"I have all the time in the world. We'll find him, and we'll see if we can persuade him. Fairly, of course. Winners never cheat, and cheaters never win." _And if only that were true._ "How do you feel?"

"Much better." Starkiller said. Flute stood and pulled his hood back up, and again his face was shrouded in shadow. "Master, I am worried."

"Worried? Why m'lady? We just beat the Number 2 seed, and he only tested about half your abilities. We didn't even have to use your ultimate attack. I built you to be the best, and you will be the best. I guarantee it."

"Yes…but Master, Rokusho is old and wise, and those add to his already great strengths."

"True…an old medabot, having seen the proceeds of a thousand Robattles…and then, we have you. The most technically advanced and designed medabot to ever come from a mind many have called genius. I will believe what they say. The old must always make way for the new. So what do you say?"

Starkiller cocked her head, and then she whipped out her sword and twirled it.

"Bring 'em on!"

And then, in a swirl of cloak, they were gone.

Will Flute and Starkiller find Rokusho? Will Metabee and Ikki catch up to them before they do? Will Koji have to start taking Prozac? Well, someone is going to find this dark duo next chapter, and let me just say…they may very well find themselves…_screwed._

Chapter 3: Motivations

More Medabots, More Power!


	3. Motivations

Chapter 3: Motivations

"Nope, he doesn't ring a bell."

Ikki sighed. He was getting a sense of Déjà vu. The last time Henry hadn't been able to immediately identify a Medabot, it had been Rokusho that had been said Medabot. Now he couldn't identify another new Medabot who may very well be after Rokusho.

"Actually I believe the Medabot was a she." Erika said, looking up from her scribbling. Henry thought that over.

"Still doesn't ring a bell. Sorry Ikki."

"No problem. Thanks anyway." Ikki said, feeling a bit depressed coupled with a touch of annoyance.

"Strange though. I can't recall anything specific but that description DOES ring a bell…" Henry pondered.

_Maybe if I rang YOUR bell it might come back to you._ Ikki thought uncharacteristically, then caught himself. _Metabee's rubbing off on me._

"Tell you what: When I have a moment I'll go digging through the back catalogues. I'm SURE there's something familiar that I know. What was the Medabot's name again?"

"Koji said Flute called her Starkiller."

"Pleasant."

"Well, looks like we're back to square one." Ikki said as he walked back over to Erika and Brass. Metabee was off in the corner reading magazines and chuckling at the various medabots he saw within.

"Well, when life gives ya lemons, make lemon meringue! We'll just have to track him down ourselves." Erika said.

"How? He could be anywhere in Tokyo."

"Not necessarily! You claim this is a strong chance he may be looking for Rokusho. Well, there are certain areas where Rokusho usually hangs out. All we have to do is check those areas, one by one and over again if necessary, until our paths cross!"

"I suppose…hey Metabee! We're going!"

"Yo! Hey Ikki, can I get this?" Metabee said, bringing over a magazine and holding it open to reveal a very fancy gun-arm. Ikki looked at it, and then saw the price.

"YE-ACK! You'll get that when I get rich! C'MON!" Ikki said, grabbing his Metabot by the arm and yanking him out the door. The magazine flew from Metabee's hand and fluttered to the ground. With an annoyed snort, Henry walked over and returned it to the rack. Ikki and Metabee were good eggs, but they could be so irresponsible…

Then again, he wasn't much better. Henry returned behind the counter and thought on this situation Ikki had presented.

A Medabot that bests four other ones and then successfully battles Sumilidon? Such a medabot may very well possess a rare medal, and the fact that the man who commands her hides his face may very well connote sinister intentions for said possible rare medal. Of all the times for this to happen…

A brief spasm of pain ran up Henry's back, and he winced. _Still not fully healed. Blasted Meda-Evil and Giganko…and even if I was, Arcbeatle is still in for repairs for that horrendous beating he got from the combined efforts of Mega-Emporer, falling off that cliff, and Giganko. The Medaforce probably didn't help matters either. _

Henry sighed. Well, he couldn't turn back time. He just had to wait. Hopefully this situation would turn out well. And if it didn't…well, hopefully Ikki and Metabee would be up to the task at hand.

Ikki and Metabee certainly didn't look to be up to anything then arguing with each other, as Metabee got in his owner's face on the not-so-gentle exit from the store and Ikki snapped back. Erika sighed and sipped from a water bottle as the two went from arguing to brawling.

"Can we get on with it!?!?" Erika yelled, just as three people came around the corner. "We have to get to finding this Flute guy and his Medabot! GUYS! HE BEAT KOJI, SO MAYBE YOU'D BETTER SAVE YOUR ENERGY!"

"Hah! Good thing your girl friend saved you Ikki!" Metabee taunted.

"WHAT? I WAS WINNING!"

The brawl recommenced. Erika threw up her hands in an expression of exasperated defeat and wondered if she should go back into the Hop-Mart and get a snack: they might very well fight for that long.

"So, a medabot that beat Koji eh?"

Erika turned at the voice to find Samantha, flanked as usual by her cronies/friends Spyke and Sloan. Samantha had the usual cocky expression on her face, which was enhanced by the deduction she was already drawing from what she had overheard from Erika's yell.

"Hello Samantha. Didn't you hear? It was all over the school today. And yesterday."

"You think I believe everything I hear?" Samantha retorted. "Well then, no matter. This would be the "Flute" that Chino kept yakking about? The one who beat the entire Rubberrobo gang? And now Koji?"

"That would be the one. I don't suppose you know where he is: we've been trying to find him with no luck."

"No, but I know what we're going to do: we'll help!"

The last two words were enough to shock even Ikki and Metabee out of their fight.

"You'll HELP? Who are you, and what did you do with Samantha?" Ikki said.

"Be quiet! Don't take it the wrong way! It's purely personal! If this guy beat Koji and the Rubberrobos, imagine the glory that will be ours when the Screws beat him into the ground!" Samantha said, throwing her fist into the air as if she had already beaten Flute. Her expression of triumph was not shared by Sloan and Spyke. Instead, they looked very apprehensive. 

"Um boss, are you sure…" Spyke began.

"BE QUIET! WHAT DO YOU THINK WE'VE ALL BEEN TRAINING FOR! THIS IS JUST WHAT WE NEEDED! NOW QUIT THE DOUBTING AND START THE MEDABOUTING!" Samantha bellowed.

"We could do that if he happened to be here." Sloan said calmly. Samantha blinked, and then turned back to Erika.

"Well, where do we start looking? The quicker we beat him, the more time we'll have for people to be impressed and terrified of us!"

"Well, we don't know. He might be looking for Rokusho…" Erika said, and figuring it wouldn't hurt, gave the Screws a synopsis of the usual locations Rokusho was.

"Thanks! We'll start at the Yu-Vun river bank! We'll make sure we'll remember you when we've returned to glory!" Samantha said, and dashed off with her fellow Screws.

"Well, I suppose one shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth." Ikki said.

"And what happens if they find him first?" Metabee said.

"Well, Samantha's a good Robattler, and she said she'd been training, but I don't know…" Ikki said.

"Hey guys, like Samantha said, doubts later! We need to strike while the iron is hot! Let's go start at the Cyujo section of the forest…"

The water was cool and refreshing, both on Flute's fingers and on his lips. When he had drank his fill, he put his glove back on and stood.

"Maybe we should have bought a few bottles of water." He said. Well, too late now. "On we go."

Flute and Starkiller continued walking along the river bank. His information was sketchy, but Flute believed it was accurate. Hence, when he arrived at the place he was heading towards and a scan of the area turned up no Medabot other then Starkiller, he was justly annoyed. Either the information was erroneous (which was annoying) or Rokusho was simply moving around a lot and hence they kept missing each other (which was even MORE annoying, since it involved random factors no one could control and humans naturally got annoyed when they couldn't control a situation). Or he simply wasn't in any of the areas, and Flute figured he had better think about something else before he gave himself a coronary.

"Ok Starkiller. Next spot." Flute sighed, and he and his medabot commenced towards the next place Flute had marked on the map he had memorized. When Rokusho wasn't there either, Flute had to fight down an urge from his childhood and throw a tantrum. He restrained it and sighed again, taking another drink from the river. _At least all these trees are keeping me out of the sun…_

"What now Master?"

"I think we've covered all the spots, and no Rokusho, so I am at a bit of a loss at the moment." Flute sad, feeling depressed. Well, he thought better while he was making music, so he pulled out his flute and played a sad, mournful little tune to emphasize his slight depression. It wasn't the end of the world, after all.

Doo-doo doo doo DO-doo DO-doo do doo doo-doo DO-doo DO-doo doo do do doooo.

(In case you were wondering, that was the flute. Hey, this keyboard don't type notes.)

"Lovely, if a bit sad."

Flute started a bit, and got annoyed with himself for it as he turned around. His annoyance faded as he saw the silver horned medabot wrapped in the brown cloak standing on the tree branch. Well, Rokusho finding him was just as good. Wait, did Rokusho have a parrot on his shoulder? What, was he a pirate? If he says "ARRR MATEY" I'm outta here.

"You are Rokusho, correct?" Flute asked. May as well be sure.

"That's his name, don't wear it out." Baton said. Rokusho glanced at his bird friend, who had accompanied him on that day for some reason only Baton knew. Maybe he wanted to sightsee and didn't feel like flying.

"I am." Rokusho said. "What do you want? You seemed to have been searching for me."

"And I doubt it was to serenade him." Baton added.

"It's not. My name is Flute."

"Your parents must have been on something." Baton said. Flute somehow managed to look angry without showing his face.

"Baton, that is not nice. It appears he named himself after his instrument…although Flute, I must say you are a tad erroneous. That's not a flute, it's the flute's smaller cousin from the woodwind family, the piccolo."

"Yes, but if I called myself Piccolo there would be lawsuits and I would have to get a white cloak and dye my skin green and all that…" Flute joked. Rokusho's blank look made him hurry on. "In any case, I've been looking for you Rokusho."

"Let me guess, you want to fight him in a Robattle." Baton said.

"How astute for a bird. Yes. You were built by Dr. Hushi, who designed the whole concept of medabots. I wish to be the best, and to be the best, you have to beat the best. So I have come looking for you…"

"Why?"

"Uh, because I…"

"Not that. Why do you want to Robattle? At all?"

Flute was silent.

"To prove I am the best. To the entire world."

"Why?"

Now Flute was angry.

"Because only then will the truth be known, and will the shame I feel leave me!" Flute blurted, before realizing he'd given a tad too much information.

Rokusho didn't answer. Instead he stood up and hopped to the ground, walking up to Flute. He tried to peer beneath the hood, but Flute yanked it further forward to keep his face obscured.

"Your path is wrong."

Now Flute was confused.

"What?"

"You have gone astray, my friend. You are motivated for all the wrong reasons. I can see it. But I can also see...you have a good heart. I will not Robattle you. But I will ask you cease what you are doing."

Flute glared at Rokusho. "How can you say my path is wrong?"

"You desire triumph, yet you hide away from people. Something obviously torments you. But this path will not heal the wound, Flute. It will only make it worse. Revenge will ultimately only make you into the thing you hate."

Flute snorted.

"I doubt that…I have to look at what I hate every day of my life." Flute said, and reaching up, he pulled his hood back.

Baton squawked in surprise and alarm, and even Rokusho's eyes widened a bit. Flute look at them for a few seconds before he pulled his hood back up, once again concealing his face in the shadows.

"Awful…"Baton shuddered.

"I see. I can see why you walk the path you walk Flute. But all I will say is, it is the wrong one. I implore you to consider that. But that is all. I will not Robattle you."

Starkiller looked at her master. He sighed and shrugged.

"Very well. I guess I can't force you." Flute said. "I don't suppose you could tell me where I could find some worthy challengers."

That was when they heard the yelling.

Samantha had been the first to hear the voices as they walked along the wall, looking for an entranceway so they could check up the river where Rokusho was known to hang out. Once she heard them, she had quickly marshaled her forces. Now she was standing on top of Spyke, who was standing on top of Sloan, who was the strongest, as she tried to look over the wall to see who was talking.

"Dang Spyke, how many bricks do you have in your pockets?" Sloan complained.

"Stop wiggling!" Samantha ordered her fellow Screws as she managed to peek over the wall. Rokusho, some other medabot, and a guy wearing a cloak…

GUY WEARING A CLOAK?

"WE GOT HIM!" Samantha yelled, and promptly fell onto Spyke in her haste to get down, which caused him to fall as well and leave all the Screws in a heap. They scrambled to their feet.

"He's there! Find a door!" Samantha yelled, charging along the wall's length, Sloan and Spyke scurrying after her.

"You sure it's him boss?"

"How many other people walk around in a black cloak?" Samantha yelled back. 'Now find a door! Or I'll use your head to make a new one!"

Spyke gulped and carefully slowed down a bit so Sloan was closer to his boss. In the end it proved pointless as they finally managed to find an opening in the wall that went along the forest and river.

"HEY! YOU WITH THE CAPE! HOLD IT RIGHT THERE BUSTER!" Samantha yelled as loud as she could as she charged headlong at the figures. Flute glanced over to Rokusho.

"Friends of yours?"

"More like acquaintances of acquaintances." Rokusho said, as the Screws finally arrived. The dramatic entrance was somewhat spoiled by the fact they all paused to catch their breath.

"Trouble?" Flute asked Rokusho.

"Nothing serious, although you might want to…" 

"Heh. So we finally meet, Flute! Don't bother running, because there's nowhere for you to hide!" Samantha finally crowed.

Flute looked confused.

"Who are you?"

"Don't play dumb! We're the greatest Robattlers that ever laced up a medawatch! WE ARE…THE SCREWS!" Samantha yelled, as she, Spyke and Sloan posed in front of a fancy background that came out of nowhere, and then vanished a few seconds later. (Ever wonder where they get those things?)

Flute stared for a few seconds.

"Never heard of you." He said. All the Screws facevaulted.

"Well, you're about to! Because you're going to be a springboard back to glory for us, you…!"

"Excuse me, if I may interrupt…are you a boy or a girl?" Flute asked. Samantha's eyes went wide, and then steam literally shot from her ears.

"I'M A GIRL! **A GIRL!** HOW DARE YOU INSULT ME!!!!!!!!!"

"Well sorry, but you just don't have a very feminine voice. Did you suffer a throat injury when you were younger or something?"

This time, it was lucky steam came ONLY out of Samantha's ears.

"WHY YOU…THAT'S IT! I'M GONNA BEAT UP YOUR MEDABOT SO BAD **YOU'LL** FEEL IT! TRANSPORT PEPPERCAT!" Samantha yelled, pressing a button on her medawatch. In a flash of orange light, Peppercat appeared. 'C'MON SCREWS!"

"Transport Totalizer!" Sloan said into his medwatch. The Turtle-Type Medabot appeared.

"Transport Cyandog!" Spyke said. The tough-luck dog medabot appeared, and Samantha wasn't too happy about it.

"CYANDOG!?!?!?!? SPYKE, WE TRAINED WITH CROSSERDOG! WHY THE HELL DO YOU HAVE CYANDOG!?!?!?!?" Samantha bellowed right in Spyke's face. Spyke cringed, but answered.

"The author thought Cyandog would fit this story better." Spyke said. The sky suddenly rumbled ominously. "I mean, he got damaged in a Robattle and he's still being repaired! That's why I have Cyandog! Yes, that's right!" Spyke hastily corrected, glancing nervously at the sky.

"Damaged…THAT'S THE DUMBEST EXCUSE I'VE EVER HEARD!" Samatha bellowed again. A lightning bolt suddenly arched from the cloud and zapped Samantha on the butt. "YEOWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! Did I say dumbest? I meant, brilliant. Yes." Samantha said, wisely not deciding to incur my wrath again.

Flute was watching this little spectacle with some confusion.

"Look Screwed…"

"SCREWS! WE'RE THE SCREWS! Now, are you going to Robattle us, or are you a coward? Because if you are, it'll be even better then beating you! We can say you were too scared!"

"Look…Samantha was it? Heh…SaMANtha…"

This time, Sloan, Spyke, and Peppercat all had to restrain Samantha from attacking Flute.

"It didn't used to be this way!" Samantha cursed when she had calmed down. "Once we were respected, and feared! We were the Screws! Then Ikki beat us, then someone else, and before we knew it, everyone laughed at us! WELL NO MORE! We've trained long and hard, and you are going to be the catalyst to our return to glory! NOW ARE YOU GONNA FIGHT OR NOT?"

Flute glanced at Starkiller.

"I suppose this day won't be a total washout, if you three have trained as hard as you say. But let me tell you something Screwed…"

"SCREWS! S-C-R-E-W-S! S, NOT ED!" Samantha screamed.

"Whatever. Reputations are a double-edged sword. Sure, they're cool when everyone is fawning over you because of them, but when everyone and their mother is attacking you to try and make your reputation their own, suddenly they lose some of their allure. It's kind of funny though, because even if they beat you, then they suffer the fate you just imposed on them. You should remember that."

All the Screws looked confused.

"Ok, no philosophy. I accept! You want to fight me one on one or should we prove three isn't a crowd?" Flute said, pulling back his sleeve.

"You wanna fight all THREE OF US? AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! THIS WILL BE EVEN EASIER THEN I THOUGHT!" Samantha laughed.

"Then, it's agreed!"

A second later Mr.Referee jumped out of the river in scuba gear, visibly startling Flute. "I hereby…"

"Are you following me around?" Flute asked.

"Just let me do my job kid! I don't ask if you have a face!" Mr. Referee said. 

"You wouldn't want to see it." Baton said. Rokusho, who had moved aside when the Screws had arrived, was standing calmly beneath a tree, having watched the whole spectacle silently. Even Baton's comment did not stir any noise from him. He watched and waited.

"Anyway, I hereby declare this to be a handicap submission Robattle between Flute and the Screws! If the Screws' medabots stop Starkiller from functioning, they win! But if Starkiller stops all three of the Screws' medabots from functioning, he wins! You are a he, aren't you?" Mr. Referee asked Flute. Samantha allowed herself a snicker before she went all business. Flute showed no reaction except a motion that basically said "Get on with it!"

"Ok! The loser must then submit one medapart to the winner, for keeps!"

"Uh…" Flute said.

"MEDAFIGHTERS READY!?!" Mr. Referee yelled as he raised his arm into the air. Flute sighed and brought his medawatch up. "MEDABOTS, ROBATTLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Peppercat, Electric Shock!" Samantha ordered. Peppercat meowed and leapt, electricity crackling on her metal appendages.

"Starkiller, your armour is insulated! Take it!" Flute ordered. Starkiller switched to armour mode and raised her shields as Peppercat slammed her claws into them. For a moment the cat medabot hung in mid-air, pumping every volt she could muster into the shields until gravity took over and she fell. Angered that her attack hadn't even seemed to be noticed, she flipped to her feet and gave the shields repeated shocks. But the armour absorbed all the voltage, grounding it without harming Starkiller.

"Damn it!" Peppercat cursed.

"Let me handle it! YAH!" Totalizer yelled as he charged into Starkiller. Even with the shields, his sheer bulk knocked the medabot off balance.

"LASER!" Totalizer yelled, and fired. Starkiller took the blow on her shields, but the damage was clear. Flute frowned at the dropping meters on his medawatch.

"That laser did something! Do it again!" Sloan called.

"Starkiller, that weapon is close range! Put some distance between you and it!"

"Right!" Starkiller said, as the armour vanished back into her body. Peppercat leapt at her, but Starkiller dodged aside as she finished the switch to Speed Mode and activated her rocket roller blades. She blasted at Totalizer, who missed another laser shot as Starkiller reached him and spun around him in a tight circle, the same tactic she had used against Whitesword. However, Totalizer wasn't as quick as him, and his targeting system quickly became confused and then at a complete loss. Starkiller shot away as Totalizer fought to overcome his dizziness, bringing up her hand.

Before she could summon her sword though, Peppercat leapt through the air and pounced on Starkiller. Starkiller hit the ground, just managing to bring up her hands to catch Peppercat's arms before she could shock her.

"Got you now!" Peppercat said triumphantly, as she leaned down, her hands crackling with electricity.

"Oh yeah? Puss, meet boot!" Starkiller shot back, as she reared back her leg and kicked Peppercat over her, sending the female medabot flying into Totalizer. Samantha cursed as the two went down in a heap.

Starkiller leapt to her feet as she switched to Warrior mode.

"YAHHHHHHH!"

Starkiller reeled as shots suddenly exploded all around her. She raised her arms and tried to defend herself against the onslaught…and then lowered them when she realized none of the shots were hitting her. She blinked and looked in confusion at Cyandog. Her look was shared by her owner, who looked at Spyke as he frantically told Cyandog to keep firing and Cyandog managed to keep hitting everything except what he was aiming at. Finally Flute smacked his face.

"Starkiller, put him out of his misery!"

"Will do!" Starkiller said as her sword ejected and ignited. Starkiller grabbed it and flipped it into her arm as it morphed into a weapon. "NOVA CANNON!"

"Oh no." Cyandog said as the powerful blast flew from Starkiller, and then it leveled him, sending him flying backwards. He collapsed next to Spyke as his smoking medal popped out next to him. Spyke sighed.

"Well, by now I'm used to it." Spyke said. "Sorry boss."

The laser shot exploded on the ground next to Starkiller, and she leapt up in surprise and screamed as Peppercat intercepted her from behind in mid-air with a powerful shock.

"Warning! Damage!" Flute's watch told him. He growled as Starkiller tried to get away from Peppercat, finally kicking her away as she made for the ground. However, Totalizer did his own interception, ramming into Starkiller like a football player the second she hit the ground and sending her backwards, her sword flying from her hand.

"AHA! I told you we'd been training! Now to show you why no one messes with the Screws! The song's over, Flute! Finish it Sloan!"

"Right Boss! Totalizer, Laser!"

"TAKE THIS!" Totalizer yelled, and fired.

He missed, as Starkiller flipped up and away from the blast, flipping across the ground and over to her sword. She grabbed it and charged.

"Fire again!" Sloan ordered. Totalizer did so, and Starkiller dodged the blast by leaping upward…

And Peppercat was flying towards her, having hidden behind Totalizer until she had jumped and then leapt to catch Starkiller again, her paws charged with voltage.

"Now I've got you!" Peppercat said as she thrust out her arms…

And then Starkiller's rockets extended and fired a short burst, sending Starkiller a little higher and right over Peppercat. Peppercat squawked in surprise as she missed her target.

"What's up, pussycat? ME!" Starkiller said, and flipped, lashing out with her leg, kicking Peppercat as hard as she could and sending her downward.

"WHOA WHOA WHOA!" Peppercat yelled as she plummeted. Totalizer yelled in alarm himself and then Peppercat crashed down onto him.

"Warning! Damage!" Samantha and Sloan's watches told them. Samantha ground her teeth in sheer fury as Starkiller landed nearby.

"GET HER! SQUASH HER BETWEEN YOU!" Samantha ordered. Peppercat and Totalizer separated and ran in a half circle in opposite directions, but Starkiller leapt up again and the two ran into each other. 

"Don't get sloppy Screwed, or you'll wind up beating yourselves!" Flute chastised.

"IT'S SCREWS!" Samantha roared back. Flute smirked.

"Well, whatever it is, you are definitely skilled medafighters, and you work well together. I deem you worthy."

"What, you're going to surrender?" Samantha said, cocky and hopeful at the same time.

"No. I deem you worthy for me to test…MY ULTIMATE WEAPON! STARKILLER!"

Starkiller flipped backwards and hurled herself into the air, tossing her sword into the air above her as she thrust out her arms and legs, like she was trying to become a star.

Peppercat and Totalizer managed to separate themselves as Starkiller charged up, blue power flowing along her armour and into the jagged points attached to her knees, elbows, and shoulders.

"What the…" Samantha said.

Starkiller's eyes glowed behind her sunglasses, and then the points of armour snapped open, to reveal they weren't just armour. They were cannons.

"Starkiller!"

"OH NO! RUN!" Samantha yelled at the medabots.

"NOVA STORM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

And the cannons erupted, spraying dozens apon dozens of blue power blasts that arced down and exploded, turning the area around Peppercat and Totalizer into an inferno. The two medabots tried to flee from the assault.

The cannons on Starkiller's shoulders suddenly rose and slid down to the elbow cannons, even as the knee cannons rose up and joined with the two points of armour on Starkiller's hips. The cannons swifted and combined into a new weapon as the barrage of power bolts stopped, and then the new cannons glowed and fired off four arcing blasts of energy that zapped down towards Peppercat and Totalizer like lightning.

They couldn't escape, as the blasts hit them and tossed both of them into the air with a cry of pain and alarm. As the two flew up, the waist section of Starkiller's cannons suddenly split apart again and shifted up her side and onto her arms, even as the arms split open and incorporated all eight of the points into it, shifting and transforming into the largest, nastiest guns the Screws had ever seen. White light surrounded Starkiller as she charged up this twin version of a mega-Nova Cannon, flowing into the barrels and igniting them with the light of a star.

"See ya, wouldn't wanna be ya." Starkiller said, and fired.

The twin blasts were so powerful they threw Starkiller backwards, as the white beams of power zapped towards the still-airbourne Peppercat and Totalizer. Their two medafighters could only stare in horror.

The blasts hit.

The explosion filled the sky, nearly blinding the Screws and knocking them off their feet. Even over the noise, you could hear Samantha's wail.

"NOT AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The light faded, as Starkiller landed, the points of armour shifting back to their original position. She raised her hand and a second later her sword fell into it. She twirled it a few times and inserted it back into her sheath. A second later, the smoking bodies of Peppercat and Totalizer crashed to the ground behind her, their metals clattering down next to them.

"Function ceased! The winner is, Starkiller!" Mr. Referee said. Flute lowered his arm and smiled behind his hood.

"Best there is, best there was…"

"Best there ever will be." Starkiller finished.

"Peppercat!" Samantha wailed, her angry disappointment over losing taking second place to her concern for her medabot. She ran over to the prone robot, and was relieved and somewhat surprised when the body didn't seem to be too severely damaged. Considering the sheer power of the weapon Starkiller had unleashed on her medabot, she had expected to find virtually nothing left. She popped Peppercar's medal in.

"Are you ok?"

"I'll be fine, although I don't want to experience that blast again any time soon." Peppercat said from the watch.

Flute smirked behind his hood. He was in a good mood: the Nova Storm worked perfectly. All that time and effort hadn't been a waste after all.

"Impressed, Rokusho?" Flute said, turning his head…and finding the cloaked medaot gone. His good mood faded, replaced by annoyance. He could of least hung around and watched the show!

"HEY! Is that weapon legal?" Samantha suddenly asked, directing the question at Mr. Referee. Flute sighed. Déjà vu.

"As far as I can tell as long as no illegal power sources are being used, and the weapon does not pose a harm to humans who are Robattling, any weapon is legal." Mr. Referee said. Samantha cursed under her breath, as Mr. Referee turned and ran off to wherever he had to go.

"Don't feel too bad Screwed…"

"It's Screws." Samantha muttered.

"Whatever. Your training and skill are obvious. Don't feel bad about losing. Instead, just try harder to win. You're good medafighters…but…you just need a little more practice." Flute said. He turned and Starkiller fell in beside him. Samantha sighed and watched them leave. Just wait until next time. She checked on the condition on her fellow Screws and their medabots, and after offering apologies for failing and promises to win next time, Samantha waved them off and transported her repair kit. She had better see if there was any severe damage hiding under the surface.

"This day couldn't get any worse." She said.

"Uh, well actually…" Peppercat said from the medawatch. Samantha looked at the tool. "What?"

"Well Boss…you see…that Nova Storm weapon…that wasn't a full-on blast."

Samantha blinked. "What?"

"The final shot…it didn't hit me directly. It was a glancing shot."

Samantha's mind roiled. All that damage and Starkiller hadn't even fired directly?

"Same here." Totalizer said. Spyke looked over to his friends as they digested this information. Never thought the day had come when I'd be glad to have been defeated first.

Ikki, Metabee, and Erika found the Screws fixing their medabots some time later. Samantha shrugged off Erika's frantic questions with irritated grunts and then by yelling at her. Ikki, meanwhile, was starting to have doubts.

"You know Metabee…"

"Oh please, don't tell me you're getting scared!"

"No! It's just that…I mean, all the Rubberrobos, Koji, and now the Screws in a three-day period? Who IS this guy? Where the heck did he get his medabot? There's just so many unanswered questions that could trip us up!"

"I don't know his name, but I think I know what it could be." Samantha said.

"What?"

"Harry Stu!"

Clouds suddenly appeared and another lightning bolt zapped Samantha on the butt.

"OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! I take it back! Quit it!" Samantha yelled.

"Ikki, why are you worrying? Who cares how much fancy high-tech weaponry this guy has? It didn't help Dr. Meta-Evil any! We've gut the skill, the guts, and the Medaforce, and I know we can take this guy down!" Metabee said, and to emphasize his point, he punched a tree. Shockwaves of pain immediately ran up his arm, and he cursed and turned away so Ikki wouldn't notice. He didn't, as he was listening to something Samantha was saying.

"So he did find Rokusho." Ikki said. 

"Yeah, but it was clear Rokusho turned him down for a Robattle. He did indicate we were sort of a step down for him. And even I may be prone to believe that." Samantha said.

Metabee couldn't tell who was more blown away by what Samantha had said, her fellow Screws or Ikki.

"What did you just say?" Ikki said.

"Ikki, I may be many things, but I'm not stupid. We were doing pretty well, but then we made one little mistake and he pummeled us. Worse, he pummeled us with style. Well, next time will be different." Samantha said, as she popped Peppercat's medal back in.

"You bet boss! I'll shoot that Starkiller so full of volts she'll be spitting electric sockets!' Peppercat said.

"That reminds me. Did he take a medapart?"

"No. He just turned and left."

"Just like Koji. He just wants the win. He doesn't care about medaparts." Ikki said.

"He's gonna care! Since he didn't take these, I'll be sure I get more use out of them!" Peppercat said, her paws crackling with electricity.

"Oh no you don't! You had your chance! We get him first!" Metabee said.

"You're welcome to him." Spyke muttered.

"I HEARD THAT!" Samantha roared, and proceeded to chew Spyke out.

"Hey guys, a theory! What if Flute IS Dr. Meta-Evil?"

"Too tall."

"Oh yeah." Erika said, and started writing again.

"Ikki! Are we going to go find this Medabum or what?"

"It's getting late Metabee. We can look tommorow. I'm sure he won't be going anywhere."

In the shadows of a nearby tree, Rokusho watched the group leave. He looked at Baton.

"A penny for your thoughts." Baton said.

"Flute…continues on the path. I think…I will keep my eye on him, and Ikki and Metabee. They may very well be the answer…or they may the catalyst for disaster."

And the Rokusho was gone.

"That wasn't good enough." Flute said as he finished his own repairs on Starkiller. Starkiller's eyes, blueish white orbs (when they weren't hidden behind her sunglasses), widened slightly.

"Master, have I made a disappointing effort? I promise…"

"No, not you Starkiller! You have performed as good as I could have expected, better. It's just that…"

"What Master? Are you sure I am not at fault."

Flute got down on his knees and looked into Starkiller's eyes, his hood back.

"Starkiller, NEVER doubt yourself. You are my masterpiece. It isn't just a tinpet, and nanotechnology that lies underneath your armour and weapons. My sweat, my blood, my tears flow through you as well. I have devoted most of my life to making you the bes, but the only way to show that you ARE the best is to beat the best. And the competition in Japan…I am beginning to find it lacking."

"Lacking, master?"

"Yes! Those Rubber suited goofs were a joke. And while Koji and the Screws were good, they weren't good enough! Superiority isn't about beating a foe in ten seconds with an arm tied behind your back and blindfolded! Superiority is taking everything the best can dish out, to be beaten down to the very end of your limits, and still finding the power within you to win. I NEED an opponent like that. I need every one of your abilities to be tested to the absolute limit, to prove that when you win none the less, that your are the greatest medabot ever built. Koji didn't provide that, and he was the Number 2 seed! And Rokusho won't fight us, and the Number 1 Seed, Space X Meda or something, well, no one has seen him in weeks! This has frustrated me…I need to find a worthy opponent!"

Starkiller nodded and slipped her sunglasses back on as Flute paced.

"Master? What about what Rokusho said? How could your path…be wrong?"

Flute glanced over.

"Maybe he feels my desire to Robattle is misplaced. I doubt he knew who I was…once. But it doesn't matter."

Flute looked off towards the setting sun.

Rokusho…he touched on something…but I mustn't let Starkiller see that.  When Sun Tzu wrote the Art of War…he said that if you don't know yourself or your opponent you will lose every battle you enter. If you know yourself but not your opponent you will lose as many battles as you win. But if you know yourself and your opponent you need not fear the results of a hundred battles…or Robattles. But what happens if you know your opponent…but you don't know who you are any more?

Flute snorted. He was thinking foolish thoughts. And he knew what he had to do, both to them and on the opponent problem.

"Well Starkiller, if the best don't seem to be enough, then there's only one thing to do. We play Needle in a Haystack."

"We do?"

"Yes we do. We go and we Robattle everyone we cross paths with, no matter the age, sex, or skill level of the Medafighter! I will find someone who can test your limits, even if I have to reduce every single medabot in this city to scrap metal!"

Starkiller cocked her head, and then she cracked her knuckles.

"Then let us be off. We have a needle to find…and woe betide anyone who only proves to be a piece of straw!"

Well, it appears Flute and Starkiller have set themselves quite a task! What will happen? Will Ikki and Metabee finally get to face this devastating duo? And will Erika finally figure out a headline for her story? And IS Flute's name Harry Stu? OW!!!!!!! Never mind! Find out next time in

Chapter 4: Let the Bots Hit The Floor!

_Sorry Left-Click, I'm just borrowing the title! More Medabots, More Power!_


	4. Let The Bots Hit The Floor!

Chapter 4: Let the Bots Hit The Floor

Flute found his first target seven minutes after he started.

"Hey, you a medafighter?"

"I am."

"Good. School won't start for a bit and I need something to do!" the nerdy-looking student said. He adjusted his glasses and raised his medawatch. "Transport Dr. BokChoy!"

"Then, it's agreed!" Mr. Referee said, as a taxi pulled up and he got out of it. "MEDAFIGHTERS READY? MEDABOTS ROBATTLE!"

"Attack ! Textbook Punch!"

"Starkiller, evade and counter!"

WHAM! WHOOSH!

"NOVA SWORD!"

"AHHHHHHHH!"

"Function ceased! The winner is, Starkiller!"

"Hey! You could have least given him a chance!"

"Why don't you try?" Flute replied to the student who had decided to stick up for the medafighter who had just lost.

"I will! Transport Eyespy!"

"Then it's agreed! Metafighters ready, ROBATTLE!"

"Eyespy…!"

"THINK FAST KID! NOVA LANCE!"

"AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGHHH!"

"Function ceased! The winner is, Starkiller!"

"Hey, why don't you pick on someone your own size?" came a booming voice. A second later a large man stormed out of the school gates Flute had found his challengers near.

"Couch Mountain!" one of them said. Flute smirked. Well, he certainly did look like a mountain.

"You kids, go run laps! I'll take care of this guy!" Mountain said. The kids ran off.

"So, you think beating kids is fun? I should make you run laps too!"

"One, they challenged me. Two, I ain't a student of yours. So unless you have something else to say…"

"I do! I challenge you myself! Transport Digmole!"

"Very well. Mountain, eh? I hope you don't have rocks in your head."

"WHY YOU…!"

"Then, it's agreed!" Mr. Referee said as he ran back. "METAFIGHTERS READY, ROBATTLE!"

"Digmole, CHARGE!"

Digmole did so. Starkiller dodged aside.

Digmole punched at Starkiller. She backflipped away, leapt backwards, and ricocheted off the wall, punching Digmole so hard he spun around several times.

"Starkiller, Nova Cannon!"

Starkiller flipped the sword into her arm and fired off her cannon. It exploded at Digmole's feet and sent him flying through the air, over the wall, and into the pool behind the wall with a splash.

Mountain gaped as the medal clattered at his feet.

"Function ceased! The winner is, Starkiller!"

"My advice buddy? Stick to coaching." Flute said. The bell rang then. Flute frowned.

"Hmmm. Guess I'll have to find some medafighters who don't go to school." Flute said, as with a swirl of cloak, he turned and left. Mountain stared after him for a bit, then realized he had to go teach gym and took off back into the school.

A few seconds later Ikki came sprinting around the corner.

"I'M LATE! I'M LATE!" Ikki yelled, as he ran as hard as he could down the street and into the school yard, falling in behind with the last of the children departing the schoolyard.

A short time later Metabee calmly strolled through the gates himself and climbed into his favorite tree. Ikki would be in school for a bit, and while he was, Ikki was going to strategize based on the information he had gotten from the Medabots who had fought Starkiller and lost. When Ikki was done, the hunt would recommence, and this time, they would find the mysterious duo.

He wondered what they were doing right now.

* * *

"Gloomeg!"

"Churleybear!"

"Acehorn!"

"Multikolor!"

"Banisher!"

"Octaclam!"

"Spitfire!"

KABOOM!

"Function ceased! The winner is, Starkiller!"

"Hey Snowbro, good thing we hung around, eh? Losing to Ikki was a bummer, but beating this guy just aboot makes up for it, eh?"

"One, you haven't beaten me yet. Two, THAT IS NOT HOW CANADIENS TALK! WE DO NOT SAY ABOOT! WE SAY ABOUT, LIKE YOU! AND WE DON'T SAY EH AFTER EVERY SENTENCE! I SHOULD KNOW!" Flute roared.

"Whoa, calm down man."

"Sorry, author talking." Flute said. There was a sudden crash, and Mr. Referee came sliding down on a pile of bricks.

"Well, there goes the forth wall. Anyway, medafighters ready, ROBATTLE!"

Dodge, SLICE!

Snowbro went crashing to the ground, his medal popping out as Starkiller landed and sheathed her sword.

"Function ceased! The winner is, Starkiller!"

"Who's next?" Flute said, as the Canadian medabot champion dejectedly carried his beaten medabot away.

"I am!" said a voice. "Come out onto the water, where I will show you the greatest predator is my Sharkkan!"

"You're on!"

"Then, it's agreed! MEDAFIGHTERS READY…MEDABOTS ROBATTLE!"

Jump, dodge, dodge, cannon charged, boom.

Sharkkan skipped across the water and hit the opposing riverbank hard, slowly sinking below the waters as Starkiller lowered her Nova Cannon.

"Function ceased! The winner is, Starkiller!" Mr. Referee declared. Ryan could only stare with his mouth wide open as Flute snorted and walked away.

"This is proving to be a city of tigers who are only made of paper! Starkiller, let's go! We'll find a challenge if it kills us!"

* * *

Henry lowered the phone, his mind consumed with what he had just heard.

"He's on a tear! He's challenging every single medafighter he can find, and he's taking them apart like a can of peas!"

His face grim, Henry sat down. Whoever this Flute was, something had either made him snap, or he was clearly very bored. Neither was good.

And neither was his outlook. While Flute seemed to be content with just beating the medabots in fair combat and disregarding the medaparts, let alone the medal, Henry wasn't so sure if that was the path he was going to keep. It could very well be a progression…or a smokescreen to hide his true intentions.

Henry stood, and his back gave a slight spasm of pain. He was still hurt a bit, but it was clear the current situation left him no choice. Even if Arcbeatle still wasn't 100 percent, he was cleared for combat.

Henry hung a closed sign on the door of the Hop Mart and headed into the back. He opened a chest he had hidden behind some boxes and took out a gold mask.

Yes, it was clear. He had to act now. He who hesitates was lost.

Then again…fools rushed in where angels feared to tread.

Only time would tell.

* * *

Femjet blasted at Starkiller, but even approaching Mach 1 Starkiller still somehow managed to dodge the jet-powered medabot. Femjet cursed and did a tight turn, swooping in for another strike. Starkiller leapt up and in a moment of insanely precise timing, landed on her back. Femjet yelled in surprise , first at the landing and then at the fact that Starkiller had shoved one of her wings down, altering her course. With a scream, she hit the ground and bounced along it before ending up in a nearby lake.Starkiller landed daintily beside the lake, arming her Nova Cannon in case Femjet had any fight left in her.

"Function ceased! The winner is, Starkiller!"

Guess not.

Flute wasn't sure who was more amazed at the way he had won, Femjet's medafighter or the small crowd that had gathered to watch.

"Not too bad…but I think you need a little more practice…" Flute said, as Starkiller fell into step beside him. The crowd parted, and in a moment he was gone.

* * *

Ikki rarely had premonitions, and even when he did, he rarely could tell what they meant. But he knew what he was feeling now. Unease. As if something bad was going to happen.

_Keep in together Ikki. Can't be thinking negative thoughts. We need to be able to think positive to beat Flute._

"Mr. Tenryou! Might I ask what is so interesting about the wall?"

Ikki jerked and then sighed. He hated geography, and there were still two more hours of school to go. Not knowing many people were doing the same, Ikki wondered where Flute was.

* * *

Flute had wandered into a bad part of town, close to where he had fought the Rubberrobos. He wasn't worried. Plus, there were more medafighters, most of whom wee bullies and cheaters. In an unlikely way, Flute liked cheaters, because one, they gave him the experience in outthinking them, and two, they were challenging in a certain way. Plus, he hated bullies.

The current medafighter he was fighting used some kind of skeleton medabot, which was ludicrously painted in bright garish colours.

"Dyebone! Bone Boomerang!" the medafighter ordered. The skeleton medabot yanked a part of itself off and hurled it at Starkiller. Good move. Dumb name. Badly telegraphed, as Starkiller dodged aside, blasted at Dyebone on her rocket blades and leveled him with a punch. The medabot didn't weight much and thus flew a good distance, which allowed Starkiller to whip out her Nova Cannon and blow it out of the sky.

Dyebone flew across the street and came to a rather painful stop in a cluster of pipes. He hit the ground as his medal popped out. A second later the pipe, damaged by the impact, burst and deluged the fallen medabot with raw sewage.

"Function ceased! The winner is, Starkiller!" Mr. Referee said in a strange nasal tone, which came from him holding his nose from the sewage's smell.

"Sorry buddy. Starkiller, fix that!" Flute said. Starkiller zapped the hold with a Nova Cannon shot, stopping the flow.

"Thanks." The stunned medafighter said.

"Not a problem, but I suggest you give him a bath." Flute said, as Starkiller fell in beside him and he left to find another challenge.

* * *

Rokusho landed quietly in the lone tree. He peered at the windows, although he was pretty sure what he was going to find: Ikki and Metabee weren't there. Rukosho was sure they were still in school, and he would have gone straight there if Baton hadn't commented on those occasional deviances that screwed up a plan. So he'd checked the house, just to be sure. No Ikki. Just Mrs. Tenryou, cleaning the house.Rokusho allowed himself a moment's musing on how nice it must be to have a mother, and then he was gone, off to Ikki's school. He would wait there. For Flute.

* * *

The Morph-Type medabot crashed to the ground, the stolen features it had used changing back to its normal bland appearance. Flute snorted. He had expected a challenge from a Medabot that had a variety of options at its command, but the medafighter had been an absolute moron, making mistakes and choices Flute would have avoided in his sleep. _There is no such thing as a bad student, only a bad teacher._ Flute mused, as the boss "gangster", if that was what he was, yelled at his flunky for failing before stepping in to try and succeed where he had failed.

"TRANSPORT MEDAPHANT!"

"Then, it's agreed!" Mr. Referee said as a sewer lid flipped up and he hopped out. 'Medafighters ready…ROBATTLE!"

Medaphant had strong armour and powerful melee weapons. What it didn't have was a smart medafighter, as the boss proved himself to be a hypocrite by being just as dumb as his flunky. Medaphant got in one good hit, which was more luck then skill, before a fury of sword slashes ended with a Nova Lance left him the medabot equivalent of a bloody, broken heap.

"Function ceased! The winner is, Starkiller!"

"I'd say you need a little more practice buddy, except I think that would be wasting my breath." Flute said, and left in a swirl of cloak and a brief flute tune.

It wasn't long before something else came along.

"HEY! YOU!" Said a male voice, as four figured materialized from around the corner. 'We want a Re….er, we wanna fight you! For the first time! Yes, this is the first time we are fighting you!"

Flute looked quizzingly at the three males and one female. They looked very familiar.

"Don't I know you?"

"No! We have absolutely nothing to do with Seaslug, Gillgirl, Shrimplips, and Squidguts of the Rubberrobo Gang!" Guido (Squidguts, what you thought it wasn't them?) blurted. Everyone else facevaulted.

"GUIDO YOU MORON!"

"Hah. I thought it was you! You think taking off your costumes makes you unrecognizable?" Flute said.

"But…we look…without…Seymour, you said taking off our costumes would work!" Gilda (Gillgirl) whined.

"Shaddup! Well, no matter who we are, or if you recognize us or not, we know one thing! We're going to make YOUR medabot unrecognizable!" Seymour (Seaslug) yelled, as Whitesword, Gokudo, Spidar, and Landmotor swooped in front of them. "TIME FOR REVENGE!"

"Starkiller, Nova Storm!"

The street rang with explosions, and a few seconds later Flute and Starkiller vanished behind a corner, leaving four beaten medabots and four blackened Rubberrobos in his wake.

"I'd say run away, but first I need a nap." Seymour said, and then passed out. His three fellows followed suit.

Flute made his way back into the better sections of Tokyo, and it paid off, as he was suddenly approached by a short kid with a gravity-defying red and black hairstyle.

"Dude! You the guy who's been beating all the medafighters?"

"Maybe."

"Flute, was it? Are you Flute?" the kid asked.

"No, I'm Oboe. Flute is my cousin."

"What? Oh. Ha ha, very funny. Well, my name's Rintaro, and I wanna challenge you!" Rintaro said, raising his medawatch. "I may be short, but my skills are large."

"You're on kid." Flute said, as Starkiller hopped forward and primed her sword.

"TRANSPORT KANTAROTH!"

The Hercules Beatle type medabot materialized in front of Rintaro.

"You ready?" Rintaro asked

"I was born ready." _Or reborn ready._

"Then, it's agreed!" Mr. Referee said, as he floated out of the sky on a balloon. Flute glanced up and shook his head. Not only had this guy been popping up all day to referee his Robattles, he always found a new way to make an entrance every time.

"MEDAFIGHTERS READY…? ROBATTLE!"

Kanteroth took a combat stance and fired off a multitude of powerful blasts. Starkiller went on the defensive, but Kanteroth was utterly relentless. Flute blinked as he made Starkiller dance. _Yikes. Crappy opponents must be making me rusty._

"Kanteroth, Servants of Twilight!" Rintaro ordered. _WHAT?_

Flute, and Starkiller, learned too late it was a code. Starkiller dodged up and jumped to avoid a flurry of shots, and realized too late she had been lead into a trap as Kanteroth immediately aimed and fired, knocking Starkiller out of the air with a cry. She crashed at Flute's feet, as her weapons went down and her right arm began to darken.

"Yeah! I'm the best! I'm awesome! TTL, dude!" Rintaro crowed.Although Rintaro couldn't see his face, he could suddenly tell something was difference from Flute's poise, his cloaked form suddenly radiating steely resolve as Starkiller got to her feet.

"TTL, Rintaro? Time To Lose? Here's a more appropriate anagram. TALK TRASH LATER! STARKILLER!"

Starkiller leapt at Kintaro, ducking under new shots and slashing. Rintaro yelled and gave orders to dodge. Kanteroth did so, but Starkiller flipped around, bounced off the wall, and lanced back at Kanteroth, driving her elbow into his back. Kantheroth yelled but managed to recover.

Flute fired off quick orders and Kanteroth suddenly found the worm had turned, as he found himself on the defense against a furious Starkiller. Rintaro tried to give orders, but Starkiller's rapid pace made them obsolete almost the second after he said them.

"Kanteroth!" Rintaro said, glancing at his meters. The damage was piling up in a hurry. "Ok then! DOOR TO DECEMBER!"

Another code, but this time Flute was ready. He called off Starkiller as Kanteroth leapt back. Kanteroth, meanwhile, switched from power to rapid-fire mode and as he landed, he let loose with a spray of laser shots.

Flute gave no order. Instead, he lifted his hand and pointed his thumb down. Rintaro wasn't the only one who could do code. Starkiller activated her Nova Cannon and aimed.

At the ground.

The blast hit the ground, throwing up a huge cloud of dust, obscuring Starkiller. The laser shots flew into the dust, but Rintaro couldn't tell if they hit their target.

"Rule 1, kid. What you can't see, you can't hit. Rule number 2…"

The dust cleared, and Kanteroth found himself starring down Starkiller's Nova Cannon barrel.

"One big blast is better then a bunch of little ones."

Starkiller fired. Both Rintaro and Kanteroth yelled, one in disbelief and one in pain, as the blast hit. Kanteroth flew back and landed on his stomach, his medal ejecting and clattering to the ground.

"Function ceased! The winner is, Starkiller!"

Flute cocked his head, and then did a 180 degree turn of his hand, turning it into a thumbs up

."Good match kid. You've definitely got skills. But…I think you need a little more practice." Flute said. Starkiller popped out her sword and sheathed it, and then Flute turned and left, leaving Rintaro to check on his medabot and the crowd that had gathered to stare.

* * *

The final bell rang, and a second later Ikki sprinted out the door.

"Ikki!" Metabee said as he hopped down.

"I got some information from one of the students! I might know where he is!"

"Well then, let's get going!" Metabee said, as he fell in beside Ikki. The two ran out the gate and down the street.

"Wait for me!" Erika said, running after them, Brass nipping at her heels.

* * *

Flute had heard about being TOO good, but he had always shrugged it off as arrogance by people too dumb to see that as a weakness. However, he was beginning to see some truth in it, as no one wanted to Robattle him any more. In fact, the second they saw him, they ran away, like he was dangerous. _I wonder if it was that Shark Rumour effect, how a five foot shark becomes a 64 foot shark that ate thirty people as it goes from person to person and they garble it more and more._

Unable to find someone, Flute had decided to try the opposite and had started repairing Starkiller. If they avoided him, he would just wait until someone who wanted to make a reputation for themselves to come to him.

Those people, however, had proved to be in short supply as well. It had taken him 37 minutes to fix Starkiller up and restore her energy, and he hadn't seen a single soul. Like people were taking different paths to keep from meeting him. _Man, that shark must he the size of a Meglododan._

"Let's go Starkiller."

"Yes Master." Starkiller said, falling in beside her medafighter. They walked down a street. No one. Another street. No one. Considering how crowded Tokyo was, this was a rather unusual phenomenon.

Flute entered a small square that would usually be used as a makeshift market. Instead, the stores were closed up or not there at all. _What is this, Silent Hill? If I hear an air raid siren…_

"It's lonely at the top, isn't it?"

Flute's head jerked up at the sudden voice.

"But not to worry, you'll be knocked off soon enough! AHAHAHAHAHA!" laughed the voice. A cloud of smoke exploded on one roof, and as Flute turned a figure wearing a leather outfit, red scarf, and gold mask swung out on a grappling hook.

Which promptly caught on something and snapped. The figure squawked as his fancy entrance suddenly became a not so fancy landing. He pulled himself up, sputtering and trying to cover up the mistake as best he could.

"That looked unpleasant." Flute said, looking at the figure. _And I thought I dressed weird_.

"Everyone has a bad day! And yours has come! I hear you're looking for champion medafighters, but lacking them, you'll settle for beating up anyone who has a medabot! Well buddy, you wanted a champion, you got one! I come from beyond the stars to separate the weak from the strong, the men from the boys, the wheat from the chaff! I AM…SPACE MEDAFIGHTER X!" the figure trumpeted, and posed as a giant X appeared behind him. Then his back spasmed a bit and he quickly stood up, trying to hide the pain.

"Space Medafighter X…so, the Number 1 medafighter in Japan finally decided to show his face, Er, metaphorically speaking, it seems." Flute said, glancing at the gold mask that covered the figure's face.

"Skip the small talk, Flute! Yes, I know your name! What do you want?"

"To be the best in the world. You're the Number 1 seed, Space Medafighter X? The best in all of Japan?"

"I am!"

"Good. You will provide a challenge I desire…and will also make a fine stepping stone."

"A stepping stone, huh? Well buddy, if you want to use me as a stepping stone, I'm going to make sure you stumble!" Space Medafighter X (here fore called SMX) said as he brought up his medawatch. "TRANSPORT ARCBEATLE!"

A bright flash, and the massive medabot appeared. Flute's brow arched. _Well. So the best in Japan has the most advanced KGB-type medabot there is._ He thought as he looked over Arcbeatle's thick armour, multiple cannons, and golden horns. _Very nice. Now THIS…is worthy of me._

"He…I mean, Space Medafighter X, are you sure about this? I'm only functioning at about 85 percent." Arcbeatle said quietly to SMX over the medawatch.

"Don't trouble yourself, my friend. That will be enough! The challenge in this case is fifty percent mental!"

"Then you're in even more trouble then you think, Space Medafighter X." Flute said as he raised his medawatch. "Ready Starkiller?"

"Oh yeah." Starkiller said as she unsheathed her sword.

"Then…it's agreed…"a voice suddenly panted, and a second later Mr. Referee came running, clearly exhausted. He'd been chasing Flute all day and it had caught up to him. "I hearby declare this…to be a submission robattle between Flute and the champion of Japan, Space Medafighter X…" he gasped, trying to speak and suck air into his aching lungs at the same time. " The rules…you know them! Medafighters…air…air…"

"All good things must come to an end!" SMX taunted.

"I'm gonna kick YOUR end." Flute replied.

"MEDABOTS…ROBATTLE!" Mr. Referee managed to yell, and then promptly passed out.

"Acrbeatle, Tri-Cannon!" SMX ordered. Arcbeatle raised his right arm and fired off a trio of powerful laser shots.

Starkiller charged, dodging aside and leaping around the three blasts. She swung her sword up as she closed it, but Arcbeatle intercepted her charge with his left arm, and using her own momentum against her, hurled her over his head with a yell of surprise. Starkiller hit the ground and rolled frantically as Arcbeatle fired off another Tri-Cannon shot, but the last blast caught her in the area effect and tossed her into a wall, causing her to lose her sword in the process.

"This is what everyone was afraid of? The general skill level of medafighters must be dropping!" SMX mock-complained. Flute ignored him, as he thought strategy.

"Starkiller, Speed Mode!"

Starkiller retracted her armour as she got to her feet, and activated her rocket blades, dashing at Arcbeatle. Arcbeatle fired again, but Starkiller easily dodged it, leaping forward and jamming her knee into Arcbeatle's face. However, Arcbeatle's prominent horns deflected most of the damage, and with a sudden twist, he grabbed Starkiller between them, spun, and tossed her into another wall. Starkiller just managed to get her armour back up before she hit.

"Warning! Body damaged 35 percent! Right arm, 50 percent, left arm 20 percent." Flute's medawatch told him. Flute growled.

"I guess you're all bluff and no stuff! Arcbeatle, Cluster Bombs!"

Starkiller leapt aside, going for her sword, as twin sections of Arcbeatle's chest armour slid aside to reveal launchers.

"Ha, I thought she's try that! Arcbeatle, FIRE!"

Arcbeatle fired the explosives at Starkiller as she snatched up her sword.

"Starkiller, reverse!" Flute ordered. Starkiller's rocket blades extended, and then suddenly the rocket boosters swung around and fired, sending Starkiller away from the projectiles. Starkiller leapt backwards, aided by the boost, and bounced off the wall, leaping upward into the sky as the bombs exploded beneath her.

"Nova Cannon!" Flute ordered. Starkiller armed it and aimed.

"See ya, wouldn't wanna be ya." Starkiller said, and fired. Arcbeatle's low speed proved to be his undoing, and he was unable to dodge and took the blast. Starkiller fired off two more, adding more injury.

SMX flinched, and then the smoke cleared. Arcbeatle was still on his feet, and although he was damaged, he was far from done.

"Hah! Still standing!" Arcbeatle said as Starkiller landed.

"Not for long." Starkiller said, and changed again. Arcbeatle fired off more Tri-Cannon shots, but Starkiller had adapted to the firing pattern and dodged all three. She swung at Arcbeatle, but the medabot blocked the blow with his arm and used his superior strength to stop Starkiller cold.

"Arcbeatle's armour is top of the line. No laser blade can cut through it!" SMX informed Flute. Flute gave him a wry look from beneath his hood.

Arcbeatle's forearm armour began to sizzle as the Nova Sword cut into it. Arcbeatle and SMX both gasped at this sudden development.

"There's always something better, Space Medafighter X," Flute said.

Arcbeatle swung at Starkiller, but she ducked. However, this achieved the desired affect of breaking the sword strike before it could completely cut through Arcbeatle's armour. Arcbeatle kicked at Starkiller, but she dodged that easily too…and realized too late it had been a ploy to get her vertical again. With that done, Arcbeatle lashed out with his horns, striking Starkiller hard and sending her to the ground at his feet.

"Warning! Body damage now fifty percent!"

"Finish it off Arcbeatle!"

Arcbeatle raised his foot to stomp on Starkiller, as firing any of his weapons at that range would have damaged him too.

He should have gone with the self-sacrifice, as Starkiller revealed she had been playing possum, as she rolled and got to her knees.

"Time for my Ryu Impression!"

And Starkiller leapt, bring her sword up in a wide arc and catching Arcbeatle across the face and chest.

"SHORYUKEN!"

"ARGGHHHHHHH!" Arcbeatle wailed as he fell backwards, as Starkiller flipped backwards and landed gracefully. Arcbeatle didn't land so gracefully.

But he managed to keep his feet. For the first time in a long time, Flute was surprised. So was Starkiller. That cost them.

"Still standing! TRI-CANNON!" Arcbeatle yelled, firing both his arm weapons. The shock slowed Starkiller down and the last two blasts caught her, sending her pitching backwards, smoking.

"Body 75 percent! Head 55 percent! Left arm 90 percent, shutdown eminent!" Flute's medawatch told him. Flute moistened his lips.

"You ain't too bad kid!" SMX said as Starkiller tried to get to her feet. "But I am afraid this battle is over! Now…" SMX said as he started to pose. "Arcbeatle with show you the ultimate power! The fiery heart of the sun!"

Yellow-gold energy began gathering on the ridges on Arcbeatle's back, crackling fiercely. Arcbeatle's horns opened wider as the energy gathered between them.

"THE PROMINENCE!" SMX crowed, and Arcbeatle fired off the massive golden blast of flame at Starkiller. Behind her shades, her eyes widened.

"Oh no." Flute said.

The blast hit, and the explosion nearly tossed Flute on his rear end. His cloak flew back, but he quickly yanked it back before SMX could see anything. He coughed on the dust and smoke.

"Well Flute, looks like this tune had ended." SMX said. Flute coughed again and waved to clear the dust from around his face.

"Starkiller?"

The dust cleared. SMX's mask eyes widened in the way masks can do that in anime.

"WHAT?"

Starkiller was revealed in Armour mode, her shields up. The shields normal blue colour had been scorched black, and the armour of said shields now looked so delicate that it would probably crumble if you tapped it.

But it had taken the Prominence. Starkiller was still in the fight.

Starkiller lowered her shields.

"STILL STANDING!" she yelled, and leapt forward, her destroyed armour breaking off her arms as she blasted at Arcbeatle.

"Ah! Arcbeatle, she's weak! Hit her with anything!" SMX blurted, thrown off guard by this unexpected happening.

Arcbeatle hesitated, unable to decide whether to use his cannons or bombs due to the inexact nature of SMX's order.

And it cost him, big time, as Starkiller was suddenly right in his face. He yelled and swung out with his horns, but this time Starkiller dodged aside by leaping and grabbing said horn. SMX's mask eyes went even wider as Arcbeatle suddenly found Starkiller doing a one-handed handstand on top of his horns.

"Excuse me!" Starkiller giggled, and activated the rockets in her feet as she twisted them, causing the boost to go downward and drive Arcbeatle to the ground, snapping off his bottom horn.

Starkilled leapt off Arcbeatle's damaged body and flipped, pulling out her sword. As she landed, she tossed it up and caught it between her arms as parts shifted and closed over it.

"CHARGE!" she yelled, and blasted at Arcbeatle as he got to his feet. His low speed cost him again, as Starkiller zipped to the side and used the enhanced Nova Sword like a sword instead of a spear, catching him across the body. He yelled in pain and slumped to his knees.

"Arcbeatle!" SMX said, getting worried for the first time. Arcbeatle shuddered, trying to fight past the damage to his body as Starkiller disengaged her Nova Lance and began to switch to Nova Cannon.

"**STILL STANDING!**" Arcbeatle bellowed, and fired off both his Tri-Cannons and the rest of his Cluster Bombs. Starkiller stopped the transformation of her arm and ran for it instead, leaping back and up, using the explosions to propel her high into the sky.

"Ok then. If that's the way it's got to be…STARKILLER, GIVE HIM EVERYTHING! NOVA STORM!"

Starkiller tossed her sword above her and began gathering her energy, glowing a bright blue then the sky itself.

"Well thanks for making yourself a nice big open target! Arcbeatle, once more! The power of the sun! THE PROMINENCE!" SMX ordered. Arcbeatle began his own charging up.

"FIRE!" Flute ordered. Starkiller's cannons snapped open and rained projectiles down on Arcbeatle. But he stood his ground, pumping more power into his shot.

"Didn't like that huh? TRY THIS!" Starkiller yelled, and fired off the second phase of the attack. The four arcing lighting-esque shots lanced down and hit Arcbeatle, two of them directly. Somehow, he stood his ground.

"This time, there is no escape Flute! FEEL THE POWER OF THE SUN! FIRE!" SMX ordered. Arcbeatle reared up and fired the giant golden fireball at Starkiller.

Flute watched it fly up at his medabot. Behind his hood, he smirked.

"Power of the sun…Space Medafighter X, you will learn…the sun is just one star…and if you want to see the power of stars…I'LL SHOW YOU! FIRE!"

"See ya, wouldn't wanna be ya!" Starkiller quipped again, and fired off her final twin mega-blasts.

The Prominence arced up and struck the blasts, and the sky filled with a brilliant burst of light as the two fought for dominance.

Starkiller seemed to float in the air.

And then the Prominence shattered, dissipating into nothingness as the Nova Storm flew on, aimed right at Arcbeatle.

"ARCBEATLE!" SMX yelled. But there was nothing he could do.

The blast hit, and a massive explosion plumed into the air. Flute was ready this time, and stood his ground as the wind tore at his cloak like a hungry creature trying to devour food. SMX did the same.

Starkiller landed in front of Flute. She caught her sword and then fell to one knee, panting. (Well, medabots can't breath, but they can give the impression of breath, methinks). She was exhausted and hurting.

The smoke cleared.

Arcbeatle stood there, his horns shattered, his armour blackened and burned, his right arm limp at his side.

Starkiller cocked her head and watched.

"Still…standing…" Arcbeatle whispered.

And then he slowly fell forward, landing on his face as his medal popped out. The battle was over.

"FUNCTION CEASED! THE WINNER IS, STARKILLER!" Mr. Referee, who had recovered by then, declared. And then he was gone.

"I certainly don't feel like a winner." Starkiller said.

SMX stared at his defeated medabot, like it was some strange new form of alien life.

"How…I lost…"

And then the stillness was filled with clapping. SMX glanced up to see Flute applauding.

"Well done, my masked foe. Well done indeed. You have redeemed this whole rotten day, and finally given me the challenge I sought. Your skills amaze me, and humble me You truly deserve to be the Number 1 medafighter in Japan. But…" Flute said, as he gestured at Starkiller. "I think you need a little more practice. Better luck next time, buddy. See you around."

And the two walked off, leaving SMX to watch them leave. He looked down at Arcbeatle, and then back at them, but by then they were gone. All that was left was a soft melody playing, a tune of victory.

"I lost…I lost…wait a minute I'm Space Medafighter X! I'm not supposed to lose! Let's see the script!" SMX said as he pulled the script out (How he got a copy, I have no idea). He paged through it.

"Ah, here we are…SMX challenges…Starkiller does a Dragon-Punch esque move…ARCBEATLE LOSES? DAMMIT, I WAS SUPPOSED TO LOSE! DAMMIT! DAMMIT!" SMX cursed. He threw the script on the ground and began to jump up and down on it.

"You do more damage to your reputation by that foolishness then by losing the Robattle." A voice said. SMX stopped his stomping and looked over to the voice. The Chick Man nodded.

"Maybe so…but still…" SMX said as he picked up the script and paged through it again. "AHA!"

"What?"

"I see why I lost! Samantha said it at the end of Chapter 3! Flute must be a Harry Stu!"

A lightning bolt somehow zapped out of the clear sky and zapped SMX on the butt.

"YEOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW!"

"I wouldn't say that. The author is trying hard to create an interesting and threatening antagonist for the heroes, while doing her best to avoid Mary Sue elements. You people constantly harping on those supposed elements being present does not help her effort." The Chick Guy said. The sky rumbled ominously in support.

"Hmph." SMX said. He started looking through the back pages of the script.

"How is this supposed to end….oh. Ow. Geez that must have hurt….sheesh you'd think it could be a better name…YE-OWTCH! Poor Rokusho! Oh I see…" SMX said as he looked through the script. Then he heard voices.

"Well, what they don't know won't hurt me! I'd better regroup!" SMX said, and tossed a smoke bomb down onto the ground. When Ikki, Erika, Metabee, Brass, and Rintaro emerged into the square a few seconds later.

"Dude! He must have just been here!"

"He was." The Chick Guy said. "What you see is within your grasp. Now…let it be seen if you can not just reach for the brass ring but possess it."

"Uh, thanks. I don't suppose you could just tell me which way he went?" Ikki asked.

"Sigh. That way." The Chick Guy said. A few seconds later the square was empty again.

"They never buy a chick. Maybe I should go into fast food instead."

Elsewhere, a voice suddenly rang out.

"DAMMIT! WHY DIDN'T I USE THE MEDAFORCE? Let's see the script!"

* * *

The sun was just about to set as it gazed it's winking eye on Flute. He finished making the last few connections in the machinery in Starkiller's tinpet and closed it.

"There. All damage fixed. I'd got a new set of armour units, and your energy should be just about restored." Flute said. A few seconds later a computer chip slid out of a slot on the back of Starkiller's neck. Flute removed it and sent it back to his residence to be recharged. "How do you feel?"

"Much better." Starkiller said. "That Arcbeatle was one tough cookie."

"Well, the bigger they are the harder they fall."

"I felt like he fell on me." Starkiller replied. 'Well, what do we do next Master?"

"That…I am not sure about." Flute said. He was amazed how quickly this time had come. "Starkiller, how many Robattles did we fight today?"

"I stopped counting at thirty."

"And how many people challenged us?"

"Well, there was Space Medafighter X…and that Rintaro kid was good too…one or two others, maybe."

"Exactly. And we've bested the king and prince of Robattling as well. I think…there may be nothing left for us in Japan. Maybe it is time to move on."

"Move on Master? To where?"

"This is a big world Starkiller. Full of challenges. More stepping stones. Our quest has just begun, methinks. Maybe we should go to Kenya, and challenge the World Champion. Victor, his name is. Perhaps starting at the top would be the best way…"

"WAIT!" a voice suddenly rang out. Flute turned from his medabot as several figures ran at him.

"Hold that thought Starkiller." Flute said, as he watched the figures approaching. "Maybe we can do one more thing here."

"Wait…don't move…ahhhhhh." Ikki said as he finally reached Flute and Starkiller. He knelt, gasping for air. His companions and medabots joined him, both at his side and gasping for air.

"Anyone…ever tell you…to stop and smell the roses…?" Metabee panted.

"Gasp…HA! Erika, School News! Who are you? Why are you Robattling? The people have a right to know everything!" Erika said, as she ran over to Flute and started taking pictures. That lasted about two seconds before Flute snatched her camera. "HEY!"

"I don't photograph well." Flute said, putting the camera away in a pocket.

"Hey that's mine! You're violating the freedom of the press!"

"I'll give it back later. And as for the press, they can freely kiss my…"

"HEY! News later! We mustn't forget why we're here!" Metabee said.

"Right! My name is Ikki Tenryou, and I've come to put an end to your winning streak!" Ikki said.

"Right! Let's get medabusy!" Metabee said, as he hopped in front of Ikki.

Flute cocked his head, and then he began to chuckle.

"Ikki Tenryou…the name rings a bell. You're the Number 3 in Japan, right?"

"Right! You must have heard of my supreme skills!" Ikki said.

"Supreme skills? Buddy, I beat five Hercules-Types just today, all of them more advanced models then yours! I just beat the Number 1 seed!"

"YOU BEAT SPACE MEDAFIGHTER X!" Ikki said in shock.

"Indeed I did. And the Number 2 seed as well. You want to challenge me? I bested the king and prince! What are you, the court jester? Because you must be if you think you're going to beat me with that anachronistic medabot!"

"WHAT? Now I'm really angry!" Metabee said.

"Why you…THAT'S IT! I'm gonna beat you so bad, your children will scream in the womb!" Ikki shot back. Metabee's eyes widened, and he turned. "Whoa! Where did that come from?"

"Kings of MS Paint Dot Com! Now, are you going to fight me, or are you scared?"

"Dude, this guy's got mad skillz! You would be better off not challenging him!" Rintaro said.

"I don't care! I SAY I CAN WIN!" Ikki said, raising his medawatch. "Well?"

Flute cocked his head again, and then he suddenly raised his hands and clapped them for a bit.

"Well met, Ikki Tenryou. You did not back down. I merely had to see if you had the courage to match your convictions. You believe in yourself and your skills, even though you are nervous. Well then, I will Robattle you. I hope you are prepared."

"You betcha!" Metabee said. He did some shadow boxing and once again winced as the pain ran up his arm. _Is it me, or is that getting worse?_

"Then, it's agreed!" And a second later Mr. Referee pulled himself out of the fold of Flute's cloak. Flute jerked in surprise.

"A couple of days ago, I would have found that considerably more disturbing…" Flute muttered. "Starkiller! Get ready!"

Starkiller hopped forward.

"Hey! I wear my sunglasses at night…" Metabee sang as he saw Starkiller's shades, although the joke was a bit off as it was still evening and not yet night. Starkiller was not amused.

"And you are?"

"Metabee! Master of the Medaforce, Ruler of the Robattles, the Ayatollah of Rock and Rolla! You will give me my props!"

"I'll give you something, but it won't be your props." Starkiller said, as she unsheathed her Nova Sword.

"Ok then! Medafighters ready…"

The tension between Flute and Ikki could be cut with a knife, as their medabots stared each other down. Neither showed a hint of apprehension or fear.

"ROBATTLE!"

"YAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Starkiller yelled as she leapt at Metabee, as he aimed his laser cannon.

The battle was on.

* * *

Well, it's come to this! Flute has left a trail of wreckage, including Space Medafighter X! Can Ikki and Metabee hope to defeat this devastating duo? And does Starkiller wear her sunglasses at night? Since when does Arcbeatle have cluster bombs? What, you thought they would be interesting? Works for me! And speaking of myself, how long before the author runs out of ways for me to make an entrance? Find out in

Chapter 5: Metabee vs Starkiller 

_I ran out of fancy titles! More Medabots, More Power!_


	5. Metabee vs Starkiller

Chapter 5: Metabee vs Starkiller 

In the last chapter, Flute and Starkiller proved their incredible skills by beating seemingly every medafighter in Japan, even Space Medafighter X! But now Ikki and Metabee have finally caught up to the pair, and have engaged them in their own Robattle! Can they succeed where so many have failed? Let's find out! Here we go!

"YAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!" Starkiller yelled as she leapt at Metabee, sword at the ready. But Metabee was ready with something of his own.

"I'd like you to meet a friend who's very close to my heart! Just a little to the right if you want to be specific! LASER CANNON!" Metabee yelled as he raised his arm and opened fire.

Starkiller flipped the sword around, and as Metabee's eyes widened, she twirled her sword and deflected all the shots away from her, before twirling the sword back and lancing straight at him.

"I have a sharp answer for those clumsy shots! NOVA SWORD!"

Metabee dodged to the right, and barely avoided getting impaled on Starkiller's twin laser blades. Starkiller recovered immediately, flipping over and slashing out. Metabee yelped as the tip of the sword caught him across the chest, doing very little damage but still some.

"Now THIS is a Cannon!" Starkiller said, as she flipped her sword into her arm as the cannon armed.

"Doesn't this girl ever slow down!?!?!?!?" Metabee yelped as she aimed. She fired, but Metabee was already moving, dodging to the side and leaping forward.

"BOO-YAH!" he yelled, as he caught Starkiller with a cracking jab across her face. She yelled, and he knew it was a good blow. Then she twisted, grabbed him in mid-air, and using his own momentum against him, hurled him over her, and it suddenly didn't seem like such a good blow. He landed on his right shoulder, and the shock wave of pain was so great if he had been human he probably would have passed out. But his body didn't afford him that luxury, so all he did was grit his teeth (metaphorically speaking, he has no mouth, it seems) and leapt to his feet.

"Nice one! But these are nicer! MISSILE LAUNCH!" Metabee yelled as his horns fired off the heat seeking missiles.

"Starkiller, Armour Mode!" Flute ordered, and Starkiller switched and raised her new shields. The missiles exploded against them, and to Flute's surprise, they actually pushed her back. He looked at the dropping meters. _Looks like exhausting his ammo is out of the question._

"Metabee, do it again!"

"Starkiller, don't let him!" Flute ordered. Starkiller switched out the armour as she activated her rocket blades and blasted at Metabee.

"Whoa, shades of Stingray! And speaking of stinging, feel MY STING!" Metabee said as he fired his laser cannon again. Starkiller took a few hits but kept going, and before Metabee could dodge she leapt and kicked him in the face with a perfect double-thrust kick before spinning in mid-air and smashing her heel across his face. He flew and hit the ground again. At least this time he didn't land on his shoulder.

Metabee leapt to his feet as Starkiller charged him again.

"You're a bee, huh? THEN CALL ME A WINDSHIELD!" Starkiller yelled as she suddenly leapt and went to armour mode in mid-air. Metabee's green eyes went wide and then she smashed into him, a crushing blow.

"Metabee!" Ikki yelled. "COUNTER!"

Metabee shook his head as he flew backwards.

"MISSILE LAUNCH!" he yelled, as he fired off another round. This time, luck was with him. The use of the armour as a sudden ramming weapon had left Starkiller in an awkward position, and Metabee's missiles soared in and caught one of the shields at the arm joints. Starkiller yelled in surprise and pain and then one of the shields broke off as she landed, overbalanced.

"HA HA! LASER CANNON!" Metabee yelled, firing. More shots hit Starkiller before she managed to get her remaining shield in front of her. She growled.

"I just had that FIXED!" she yelled, and then she suddenly snapped off the other shield and hurled it at Metabee like a discuss.

"WHOA!" Metabee yelped, and ducked under the flung piece of armour. Starkiller withdrew her other armoured parts and snapped out her sword, leaping at Metabee. Metabee flipped backwards to avoid one slash and then grabbed up the discarded shield and yanked it in front of him. Starkiller's Nova Sword cleaved it in half a second later.

" WHOA! AGAIN! LASER CANNON!" Metabee yelled, leaping backwards and firing like Antonio Banderas in Desperado. Lacking her shields, Starkiller took a few more shots before she deflected the rest with her sword. ParTs of her were smoking, and she wasn't happy.

"MISSILE LAUNCH!" Metabee yelled, as he fired off two more.

"Starkiller, outrun them!" Flute ordered, irked by Metabee's successful disabling of his shield design. Starkiller activated her blades and blasted away, the missiles doggedly following her.

"Ok Metabee, listen up! You're doing good, but your normal cannon will take too long to wear Starkiller out! So here's what I want you to do! I want you to fire both your cannons at FULL POWER!"

"WHAT? Ikki, if I fire both my arms at full power the recoil will knock me on my Metabutt!"

"We're in a forest, you medamoron! Lean against a tree!"

"What? Oh yeah! Why didn't I think of that?" Metabee said. He heard the missiles explode and knew Starkiller would be at his throat any second now. He leapt backwards and leaned against a tree as ordered, as his left arm's second cannon emerged.

"Here we go! DUAL CANNONS!" Metabee yelled, and raised both his arms and opened fire as Starkiller ran at him. The recoil ran up his arm, and his right shoulder began to complain immediately. In the back of his head, Metabee began to wonder if there was something seriously wrong with him.

The shots tore at Starkiller, as she tried her best to deflect as many as she could. But she didn't falter, running at Metabee with her sword out and bad intentions on her face.

"YEE-IP!" Metabee squawked, as he finally quit firing and ducked. Just in time, as Starkiller's sword slashed over him and cut through the entire tree. Metabee felt the tree starting to fall and skedaddled away from it.

Right into Starkiller's kicking leg, as she swept his feet out from under him. He hit the ground face-first, and then Starkiller reached down and clamped her hand onto the back of his head, holding it down onto the ground.

"EAT DIRT!"

And she leaned down and activated her rocket blades. Ikki, Erika, Brass, and Rintaro all gasped in alarm as Starkiller dragged Metabee along the ground face-first.

"MMMMMMFFFF! GKKKMMMAAAA! GIYIYYIGIYIYIGGI!" Metabee gasped and mumbled-yelled as he was dragged along. It finally ended as Starkiller suddenly yanked her arm up, and Metabee with it, and in a display of great strength, hurled him forward towards a rock.

Metabee's eyes flashed with rage, and he flipped over so he hit the rock with his feet instead of his spine, and ricocheted off it and back towards Starkiller.

"You wanna eat? How about a knuckle sandwich!" Metabee cursed, and let Starkiller have it right between the eyes. The blow was so fierce Starkiller was flung head over heels backwards…only to flip completely and ram her feet into Metabee's chest and face.

"How about a barbeque?" Starkiller countered, and fired her rockets in a brief burst, sending both her and Metabee backwards with the latter being burned. He hit the rock behind him and pain shot from his right shoulder again. _Dammit!_

"MISSILE LAUNCH!" Metabee yelled, firing more rockets. But Starkiller didn't run this time. Instead she whipped out her Nova Cannon and shot the two missiles out of the air, before turning the cannon on Metabee and firing. Metabee rolled aside and countered with his laser cannon, and the two ran, jumped, dodged and fired, turning the landscape between them into a mess. Finally Metabee landed a good spread of shots just before the Nova Cannon glanced him, and both went down.

Ikki glanced at his watch (just so you know, the two have been giving orders the whole time, but too many orders disrupts the Robattle, methinks). Metabee's body was at 55 percent, and his left arm at 80. His head and right arm weren't too bad though. It was clear that Starkiller had taken some damage as well, although how much only her cloaked medafighter knew.

But he clearly wasn't happy about it, as Flute thought strategy. This was turning out to be considerably more difficult then he thought. Ikki was good, and Metabee and him were clearly quite a team.

Fine then. Divide and conquer.

"STARKILLER…" he called, and then instead of giving his order he pulled out his flute and played a short tune. Ikki blinked and turned his head at it. It was a snippet of _The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly_.

And Ikki didn't realize it was meant to distract him until too late.

"What the…GIYIYYIYIYIIYGIYI!!!!!" Metabee gasped as Starkiller charged and leapt at him, her sword slashing out…

And Metabee ducked under her, grabbed her, and threw her over him.

"Did I mention I learn fast? And you'll quickly learn this hurts! MISSILE LAUNCH!" Metabee yelled, firing. Ikki grinned. There would be no way Starkiller could switch to her cannon fast enough to…

"Wait…" Flute said as Starkiller got to her feet and the missiles closed in. "Wait…"

"Kiss your bot good bye!" Metabee yelled.

"Wait…NOW!"

Later, Ikki still couldn't believe what he had seen Starkiller do, as she cocked back her arm and threw her sword. The laser blade spun in a perfect arc, slicing through one missile and then the next. As the severed parts fell, Starkiller blasted forward on her rocket blades, catching her sword in mid-air. The severed missiles fell past her back as she blasted on. Metabee's eyes went wide, and then her sword slashed out, catching him in a high arc across the chest and shoulders.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!" he yelled, as he fell backwards.

"Warning! Body 70 percent damage!" Ikki's medawatch said.

Metabee was hurting as he got up, his right arm throbbing from his landing. Then his eyes went wide as Starkiller blasted at him again.

"You ain't using my own move against me THIS TIME!" Starkiller yelled as she stabbed at Metabee. Metabee decided to gamble, and slammed his hands together. They closed on the blade, and it burned, but it screwed up the blow. Yanking the blade backwards, Metabee literally threw himself on his back while at the same time bringing up his leg, hooking it into Starkiller's chest and throwing her over him in his own unique counter.

"Who needs you! I got me…!" Metabee said, as the pain exploded in his right arm again: he had thrown himself on the ground pretty damn hard to get the momentum he needed.

Starkiller landed on her face near Flute.

"Warning! Body 70 percent damage!" Flute's medawatch told him.

"You're pretty damn good Ikki! But it ain't over until the fat lady sings!" Flute said to his competitor.

"Then someone better tell her she's on in five! Metabee, use it!" Ikki replied

"You got it Ikki! I'll…"

Whatever Metabee was going to say was washed away in a sudden tidal wave of pain. Unlike all the previous times, the pain in his arm hadn't gone away. Instead, it had doubled, tripled, and was now shooting through his entire body.

"ARGH!"

"Metabee!" Ikki said in alarm, as smoke suddenly began shooting from Metabee's right shoulder joint.

"What the…?" Flute said, as he put out an arm to indicate Starkiller not to attack. More smoke shot from the joint and Metabee knelt over, in agony and showing it.

"AAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!" Metabee screamed, and then there was a sudden loud popping/snapping noise and Metabee's right arm suddenly broke off the shoulder joint. Ikki suddenly felt sick to his stomach as he saw the arm fall to the ground. This wasn't an armour problem. Metabee's tinpet had literally snapped off.

"METABEE!!!!!!!" he wailed, running to his agonizing medabot. As mentioned, technically Metabee couldn't feel pain, but he had systems to indicate damage and they were going haywire. While it wasn't as bad a feeling as a human might of had if he lost a limb, it was far from a day at the beach.

"MY ARM! MY ARM……!!!!!!!!!!" Metabee wailed, falling to his knees.

Flute looked at Starkiller as she looked at him, and it was clear neither of them had any idea what was going on. Mr. Referee had been watching the spectacle, but now he turned to Flute.

"You didn't…?"

"No! I don't know what's going on!" Flute said as he looked back at Metabee, who was still wailing in pain. Mr. Referee had been around long enough to know when someone was generally confused, and Flute was. He hadn't been the cause of this. At least not intentionally.

Flute looked back at Mr. Referee, and then back to Metabee. Ikki was trying to help him, even as his friends ran to join him, but he didn't seem to have any means of stopping Metabee's pain.

"Declare a tie." Flute said to Mr. Referee.

"What? Oh. Ok. This match is officially declared a draw!" he said. But he didn't run off immediately, which was a first for Flute. But he had other things to occupy his mind.

"Metabee…" Ikki said, greatly worried. In the back of his mind, the thought that maybe he should look into getting his repair kit presented itself, but it was ignored for the fera he felt for his best friend. He and Metabee had been through a lot, and he could almost feel his medabot's pain.

"My arm…my damn arm fell off…" Metabee cursed, as he tried to get his head together, even with the horrid burning (remember, while this isn't REAL pain as we might feel it, for Metabee it's real enough) continuing to race through his body.

"What happened?" Erika said.

"I don't know! He just…" Ikki said helplessly. Behind him, unnoticed, Flute picked up Metabee's lost arm.

Metabee saw it though.

"HEY! THAT'S MY ARM! PUT IT DOWN! YOU DIDN'T WIN THIS! ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!" Metabee screamed as a new tidal wave of agony washed over him.

"YOU!" Ikki said, whirling around as his eyes filled with anger. "This is your fault! What the hell have you done to my medabot! I oughtta…!"

"Whoa kid! I didn't do this! At least, I didn't mean to. Hey ref, did it look like I was trying to break off his arm?" Flute said defensively.

"Uh…hmmmm…" Mr. Referee said as he mentally reviewed the Robattle. "No! I could see no intention or obvious focusing of attacks that would cause such damage! As far as I can tell by my observations, this is not your fault!"

"Well then, if he didn't do this who did?" Ikki said. Brass and Erika tried to comfort Metabee, who was still moaning.

Flute turned the arm over, looking at it. He found what he suspected.

"This." Flute said, and plucked a shard of dark metal from the arm. It was so small Ikki wouldn't have seen it if he hadn't been looking so closely.

"What's that?"

"Shrapnel of some kind. Looks like a bit of armour broken off by a high-impact explosive blow. It went through Metabee's armour and lodged in his tinpet…really deep too, deep enough for a usual repair job to miss…but it's strange…"

"What?"

"The shrapnel might not have been noticeable by human eyes, but the medabot's systems should have eventually read an abnormality. Then it would have been a simple job to have the medafighter program the medabot's nanotechnology to have it removed…unless…"

"Unless the medabot DIDN'T TELL HIS MEDAFIGHTER THERE WAS SOMETHING WRONG WITH HIM!" Ikki roared, getting it as he whirled back towards Metabee. Metabee tried to look defensive, but there was a glimmer of guilt in his eyes that Ikki could see. "METABEE! Why didn't you tell me there was something wrong with your arm! Why don't you…"

"Save it for later Ikki. Let me take a look at your medabot."

"NO!" Metabee suddenly yelled, pulling away. "I don't want that cloaked freak anywhere near me!"

"Metabee, by not telling Ikki to have your nanobots remove this obstruction, eventually they decided it was a part of you and ignored it. Even when it started to work itself through the tinpet and cause further damage. What could have been an easily fixed problem is now a very serious problem, and I suggest…"

"NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Metabee yelled. "I don't let cloaked weirdos check me out! I STILL say this is your fault! You're covering up your own guilt you…!"

With a sudden blur of motion, Flute took a few quick steps forward and grabbed Metabee by his shoulders as he knelt down. Metabee had moved away a bit from the others in his protests, and hence Flute had his back to them. The shock at the sudden movement kept them from moving, and hence only Metabee could see what he saw when Flute reached back and pulled back his hood. Metabee's green eyes went wide.

"OK, NOW LISTEN YOU SUPERCILIOUS CONTRAPTION." Flute hissed. "Let me tell you something. There is a difference between being independent and being condescending of anyone who tries to help you. Accepting aid does not lessen your self-worth by thinking you need someone to keep living. No man is an island, and neither are medabots. But since you're so caught up in your fear of being lesser, I will spell it out to you. By not telling Ikki about your problem, you have caused severe damage to your tinpet. It will require severe repairs, which will be quite expensive, more expensive, then Ikki can most likely afford. And since he clearly cares about you so much, he'll get you those repairs, but it will take awhile. Which means a while without any Robattles. Which means rumors will start to spread that you're afraid, even if the truth is presented. It could even mean your rank being stripped from you because of inactivity. Do you want that Metabee? To have everything you worked for be torn down around your ears? So you have two choices. Swallow your damn pride and let me help you, or have it chipped from you bit by bit until you have nothing left. Two choices Metabee. PICK ONE."

And Flute let go of Metabee's shoulders, leaning back and pulling up his hood a second before Erik and Ikki darted around, just missing his face. Metabee stood there stunned, having never had anyone speak to him that way.

"What did you do?" Ikki said accusingly.

"Just gave your medabot a little kick in his medabutt. He needed one."

"Hey! Just you wait! I was well on my way to kicking…!"

"Metabee…" Flute growled. Metabee sighed and winced. The pain was still bad.

"Ok. I'll let you help me. But if you try any funny stuff…!"

"I'm sure he'd prevent it if such were my intentions." Flute said, gesturing to Mr. Referee. He saluted. " To say nothing of your medafighter."

"You said it. What are you doing?"

"I'm going to fix your medabot. For free, which will save you a lot of trouble." Flute said, kneeling down again. "Transport repair kit."

The repair kit that materialized was considerably fancier and more high-tech then the one Ikki had at home. Flute selected some tools and went to work on Metabee's arm, as Metabee and Ikki watched. Erika looked around, saw Starkiller calmly standing in wait, and pounced on her. Starkiller looked quite exasperated at the whole affair as Erika bombarded her with questions.

"Just talk to her Starkiller, if it'll keep her happy." Flute called over. He finished working on Metabee's arm and gestured to Metabee.

"What?"

"Your joint had completely crumbled. I have to replace it, and to do that I have to clean out the wreckage in your tinpet. You'd better brace yourself Metabee, this will hurt a bit…" Flute said as he poked into Metabee's body with some tools.

"YEOW! OWOWOWOWOWOOW! GIYIGIGIYYIYI!" Metabee yelped.

"Got it. Done." Flute said as he pulled out some small crumbled bits of metal.

"That hurt!"

"You think that's bad you should have your wisdom teeth taken out. Even with anesthetics it's an incredibly unpleasant experience. My advice Ikki, if you have it done, have them knock you out instead of numb you."

"Uh, thanks…" Ikki said, as he watched Flute go back to Metabee's arm, working it over with various tools for the next twenty minutes.

"Ok, done." Flute said. "Now I just have to carefully…don't move Metabee…" Flute said as he picked up the arm. Metabee stood still, and Flute carefully positioned the arm and snapped it back in. Metabee winced.

"Ok, now just stand still a few more minutes." Flute said as he sent his repair kit back to wherever it had come from. Erika was finished and walked back to Ikki's side, frowning over her notes.

"That Starkiller is a  terrible interview! She's so vague!"

"I have a feeling she meant to be." Ikki said as Starkiller rejoined her medafighter's side. For an awkward moment the group just stood around, as Flute looked at his watch.

"Ok, you can move now. Try it."

Metabee moved his right arm around. It felt, literally, as good as new.

"Ah. That's better! Ok, let's pick up where we left off!" Metabee said, getting into a combat position.

"No."

"NO? What, are you afraid?"

"No Metabee. It's for your sake. I applied a type of heat/corrosive glue just before I reattached your arm. It'll melt the joint a bit and then refuse for additional strength and bonding. But that'll take a bit."

"A bit? How long?'

"About twenty four hours."

"24 hours!?! No way! I bet you're just making this up because you know I can beat you!"

"Fine, don't listen to me. But I warn you Metabee, your arm is resetting itself, and any strenuous activity would be VERY bad for it. Including Robattling. So if we start fighting again, there is a very strong chance your arm will fall off again. And this time, no one will be able to repair it, including me. Which means you can either become the world's first disabled medabot, or Ikki will have to buy a whole new tinpet for you. Which will be even more expensive then the repairs, which leaves you back at your previous state I rescued you from. So I suggest you listen."

"Do what he says Metabee. I don't want you breaking again." Ikki said.

"Hmmpph! Ok, fine! But I still say you're afraid!"

"Hardly. I hate leaving things half-finished as much as you do. So I propose this: I'll meet you in twenty-four hours, and we can have a rematch. And then maybe I'll be able to shut you up." Flute said.

"Good luck." Brass muttered.

"You're on! Twenty-four hours! Where?" Ikki asked.

"I'll let you know." Flute said, as he turned and started to leave.

"HEY! What do you mean, "I'll let you know."?"

"Just like I said. And Ikki, you'd better use this boon well, because I'll be ready. I expect you to be as well. Then again…" Flute said as he turned away and continued walking. "Perhaps it doesn't matter. "For no man born of woman can harm Macbeth."!

And with that odd last sentence, Flute and Starkiller vanished amongst the trees. The group stared after him.

"Dude, what did he just say?" Rintaro said. Ikki jumped. He'd forgotten the short kid was there, he'd been so quiet.

"I think it was Shakespeare. His play Macbeth, I'd assume." Erika said. "But forget what he said! Guys, do you know what this means?"

"What?"  
"We have a chance! Tomorrow is Saturday, so no school! We have all day to find out!"

"Find out what?"

"Dummy! This is our chance to find out who this Flute guy really is!"

"How? You think we've met him before?"

"I didn't say that! But we have clues! His voice, his mannerisms, they indicate wealth and culture! The cloak, it represents a tragedy! Now we just have to use those…HEY! METABEE, YOU SAW HIS FACE!"

"What? Oh yeah! You did! Metabee, what did it look like?" Ikki said, as everyone suddenly crowded around Metabee. Metabee sweatdropped.

"Uh, well, the pain was kinda preoccupying me…uh, it looked…well, kinda like yours."

"He looked like us? Ikki, it's your evil older brother!"

"I don't have an older brother, much less an evil one!"

"Then I must have an evil brother! My parents have been keeping secrets from me!"

"NO NO NO!" Metabee yelled. "I mean it just looked, well, human. Look, I'm not good at describing faces! It just looked…human!"

"Then why does he hide his face with that hood?"

"Uhhhhhhh…well there was…"

"What Metabee? What?"

"Well, his face was…wrong."

Silence for a moment.

"Wrong? What do you mean, wrong?"

"I JUST MEAN WRONG! IT HAD SOMETHING THAT YOU OR ANYONE ELSE I'VE SEEN DID NOT HAVE! Wrong! I'm sorry if I can't describe facial deviances either! It wasn't something I ever thought I'd have to do!" Metabee spluttered.

"Oh well. Well, we still have something to go on! Ikki, meet me tomorrow at the Hop Mart! We'll crack this guy's secret yet…hey I just realized he took my camera!"

"No he didn't." Brass said, walking around Erika and handing her the device. "I found it on a nearby rock."

"Good! That'll…HEY! Aw, he took the film!" Erika complained. "That's it! I am so gonna expose this guy!" Erika declared, and took off. Brass sighed and took off after her medafighter.

"Dude, I'll see you tomorrow! You looked pretty good out there. If anyone can beat him, you probably can!" Rintaro said. He gave Ikki and Metabee a thumbs up, and left. Mr Referee was already gone, off to do whatever he did.

"Metabee…"

"Yeah yeah. Sorry."

"Metabee, an apology won't just make this go away! Why didn't you tell me your arm hurt?"

"Well…uh…you see…" Metabee stammered. He took a look at Ikki for the first time since the conversation had started and saw his medafighter didn't look angry, only hurt. He felt pretty rotten.

"It's just that I have this…fear…that one day you're going to…well, take me away from me!" Metabee blurted.

Ikki looked confused. "What?"

"I know how you feel Ikki. The way I act, the way I do things, the way I don't listen when you want me to, I know it aggravates you! I know sometimes you just wish I was just a normal Medabot. But I'm not! I'm me! I'll always be me! I LIKE being me! And somehow I wonder if one day you'll just…get sick of it and try to get rid of me somehow. Oh, maybe you won't up and throw my medal away, but…well…I guess this is my fault. I was so wrapped up in MY concerns I didn't think about you. I'm sorry. I guess Flute was right, I did need a kick in the medabutt."

Ikki was silent. Then he smiled slightly.

"Apology accepted! Now let's get to work! This time we're definitely to beat him!"

"You betcha! I know her moves now! Flute may as well have trained with his grandmother, because his bot is going to be ancient history!"

"History!" Ikki repeated, as he locked hands with his medabot. "We'll show him a whole new tune!"

"Yeah!"

From the shadows of the tree, Rokusho watched as the medabot and his medafighter walked away as they crowed on how they were going to win.

"At least they're confident." Baton said from Rokusho's shoulder.

"Confidence alone does not win a Robattle. But I am sure Ikki will be the key. The question is…will he open the door to heaven…or the gates to hell? Until then, I will watch. I just hope this goes well."

Unknown to Ikki, he was being watched. But not just by Rokusho, but by a dark eye that shone worth from even deeper shadows, an eye through which a black gaze shone, a beacon of hate.

"So, you live to fight another day Mr. Tenryou…" a dark voice said. Everything around him was dancing shadows, a crazy ballet causes by the very little light in the room. "I hope you enjoy it, because it will be the last time!"

The figure turned, his hateful gaze looking down apon the rows and rows of figures below him…and slowly turned his gaze up to the largest and darkest shadow of all, close to him, in proximity and in heart.

"Soon…soon I will have my revenge…and Mr. Tenryou will learn the price is far more then his childish mind could ever conceive of paying! And it will be a price he pays in full!"

The figure reared back his head and roared laughter, a sound no sane man could ever make.

And as if in response, red pools of burning crimson opened in the darkest shadow.

All it did was hiss.

Well, just when you think all the players have been introduced! Who is in the shadows? What is his grudge against Ikki Tenryou? And will Ikki find out about it in time? Will he and Erika finally find out the truth that lurks in the shadows of Flute's cloak? And will the next book Metabee reads be "A Farewell to Arms?" Find out next time in…

Chapter 6: Revelations 

_More Medabots, More Power!_


	6. Revelations

Chapter 6: Revelations

"I think I have something." Henry said.

Ikki blinked. He hadn't been expecting this. He'd woken up, had breakfast, and then went down to the Hop-Mart to meet Erika. And then Henry had called him over with this bit of news.

It wouldn't have been one Henry would have normally had, but he was still smarting from his loss to Flute, and to take his mind off things, he had tripled his efforts of going through the Medabot catalogues. And lo and behold, his eyes caught something, which they probably wouldn't have caught if he hadn't met, and lost to, Flute.

"You asked me to look for your medabot. Well, I didn't find an exact description, but this rang a bell." Henry said, pointing to a picture.

Ikki looked it over.

It was called Starlight, a female medabot done in very light and pure white colours, and dubbed a "Jack of All Trades" type. And it DID sort of look like Starkiller…or was that just him?

"Hey Metabee! Come take a look at this!"

The two humans and medabot perused the picture.

"You think this is it?"

"Well…it kinda looks like it…but that was different, and that, and that wasn't there, and that had been replaced with…ARGH! It's too damn generic!"

"Well, that was the point. The Starlight was of a small group of medabots, the "Jack of All Trades". Their main strength, and at the same time weakness, was that they didn't have a specialty. You could customize them with a greater degree of control then you could with say, Metabee, who would have a problem if you equipped him with melee parts. This made them rather difficult to Robattle with…too difficult, in the end: the line was discontinued a few years ago. But they were favored by a few expert medafighters, who could use the extra customization process to their advantage. Are you sure?"

Ikki took another look. He was SURE there was SOME resemblance, but he couldn't be sure his mind wasn't just making it up.

"No, but there's something there. Thanks Henry."

"Not a problem."

Ikki told Erika of what he had just learned. Erika and Brass took a look too and came to the same conclusion: Maybe, maybe not.

"Well, any port in a storm people! Let's go to the library and see if there are any stories with this Starlight type in them!" Erika said, and took off, with Ikki and their medabots vainly trying to keep up with her.

Ikki got a pleasant surprise at the library.

"Karen!" he said, immediately getting all dreamy-eyed as he saw the girl he felt such a strong affection for. Metabee groaned and waited for someone to snap Ikki out of it. When no one did, Metabee did it by kicking Ikki in the shin.

"OW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Ikki yelled, and proceeded to get into another brawl with Metabee. Karen smiled.

"Come on now boys, be nice."

Ikki stopped immediately. Metabee muttered something about being whipped and headed into the library after Erika and Brass.

"So what are you doing here Ikki?"

Ikki told her.

"Oh! Sounds mysterious! Can I help?"

"YES! I mean, uh, well, why are YOU here Karen?"

"Oh, I'm escorting my uncle to the library: he likes to go to quiet places on weekends sometimes. I decided I'd keep him company…but he'll surely bury his nose in a book eventually, and then I can help!" Karen said in her so-sweet-it'll-give-you-cavities way. Ikki went dreamy-faced again, and since Metabee was gone, I zapped him on the butt with another lightning bolt.

"YEOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Well, see you in a bit, Ikki." Kaen said, and went into the library as Ikki rubbed his sore rear. He sighed and went in himself.

Some time later Erika had given out assignments. She and Brass would look through the computer records, Ikki would check the microfilm in case it hadn't been transferred yet (Considering how much material they probably had they probably wouldn't have finished even by 2122). Karen and Dr. Aki (who had been roped into it by Karen) would look through books on medabots, and Metabee would do whatever he wanted provided he stayed out of their hair. He went to go look up something for himself.

Two hours later Ikki had a slight headache from squinting so much and had gotten nowhere. Same with Erika. Karen had shown him a few things on Starlight medabots, but it was mostly technical stuff and nothing that was historically significant. Metabee, at least, wasn't bothering them: he had found some books he was reading with interest.

"Just what is that anyway?" Ikki finally asked, unnerved by his medabot being so quiet.

"Shakespeare! If that Flute is going to quote it, I'm going to quote it right back!…If I could understand what the heck these people are saying half the time!"

"Ikki! Come here! Now!" Erika suddenly called. Ikki left his medabot to his play-reading and scampered over.

"Take a look!"

Ikki looked at the picture. There were two figures in it. One was a Starlight medabot. The other was a mid-adolescent boy wearing what looked to be rather expensive clothes. He had straight hair whose color couldn't be told from the black and white news picture and serious, mature, handsome in a kind of Peter Parker way face. He had a slight smile on his face and a hand on the medabot's shoulder, looking quite pleased for some reason. The medabot just looked happy to be with the boy.

"Who is that?"

"I have no idea. Let me take a look…" Erika said, as she tried to get the story that went with the picture. Ikki felt Karen and Dr. Aki come up from behind him: They must have heard Erika as well.

"Oh my." Dr. Aki said. "I know who that is."

Everyone whirled.

"Who?" Ikki and Erika said at the same time.

"Why, that's Merer Pimon…I knew his parents. They used to be good friends…my god, it's been so long since I thought about him…" Dr. Aki said, his face taking a serious and slightly sad disposition.

"Why?" Ikki asked.

"That's why." Erika said, as the story finally came up.

SON OF COMPUTER TYCOON DIES IN HORRIFIC AUTOMOBILE ACCIDENT

Rain-slick roads claim five lives in one night… 

Terrible driving conditions and a howling rainstorm turned a stretch road running along the Asuju mountains into a graveyard. Among the victims was 16 year old Merer Pimon, son of multi-billionaire Williard Pimon and retired singer Serenity Pimon. It is believed that the boy lost control of his car along Route 37 and went over the edge…

Ikki didn't read any more. He didn't have to.

"He died in a crash huh?" Ikki said. Behind them, Metabee walked by holding open a book and loudly reading from it.

"To be or not to be, that is the question! Whether tis nobler to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune…"

"Yeah. It was a terrible tragedy…it really hit his parents hard. After it they basically just stopped interacting with us, the world…Williard even sold his company. It was horrible…such a terrible loss to them…and us…" Dr. Aki said sadly. Metabee walked by again.

"Oh she does teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs apon the cheek of night like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear. Beauty too rich, for earth too dear!" Whoa! I gotta use this stuff on Oceana the next time we see each other…"

"What do you mean sir?" Erika said, tempering her "go for the throat and make them spill everything" reporter instincts in respect for Dr. Aki's feelings on the matter.

"Well…Merer was a genius. A prodigy in every sense of the word. Especially when it came to mechanics. But his specialty was…"

"Medabots?" Ikki ventured.

"Yes. He said he found them the most challenging…in fact I believe he was coming back from a Robattle tournament when the accident happened. I think that might have had something to do with it…according to his mother before she just stopped seeing us, he lost under very questionable means…he was quite upset by it from what I heard."

Ikki and Erika looked at each other.

"I'm sorry uncle." Karen said, trying to improve the mood of his now depressed relative.

"It's ok Karen…it just saddens me that a random act like that could end a life with such potential…I mean, I knew Merer from since he was a child. He was so quiet, so unassuming, so humble about his talents. Never lorded it over others: his parents raised him well. I was going to offer him a job the second he graduated…with his abilities, I swear if he put his mind to it he could have built the ultimate medabot…"

Ikki gulped.

"Well, sorry if I intruded on your search. I'll go back to my books." Dr. Aki said. He turned and left. Erika looked excited.

"This is it Ikki! The link we were looking for! This story will be pure dynamite!"

"I certainly feel like I'm holding something with nitroglycerine… " Ikki weakly replied. _If it…could it…ULTIMATE MEDABOT? _

Metabee walked by again.

"Lord what fools these mortals be!" Hey, that's a good one!"

"Metabee!" Ikki said, pulling his medabot aside. He quickly filled Metabee in. Metabee's green orbs went wide.

"So you think…but Ikki, he's dead!"

"This reeks of a cover-up…I need more information!"

"But where are we going to get it?" Ikki asked.

"Straight from the horse's mouth! We go interview the Pimons!"

Ikki and Metabee sweatdropped.

"Uh Erika…freedom of the press and all…but it sounded like the Pimons were really hurt by the loss of their son. I don't really think it's fair if we go barging in asking a bunch of nosy questions, or raise their hopes on…"

"Ikki, give me some credit. I know. I'll just say it's for a school project…we're doing a retro-report. Very professional and kind. I don't plan on working for the Enquirer when I get older, you know." Erika said. Ikki felt some relief.

"But Erika…why would our school be reporting on him? I doubt he went to our school…he'd probably go to some extremely fancy private…" Ikki trailed off. They all looked at Karen.

"What?" Karen said.

Some time later, everything was set. Dr. Aki had said he was fine alone, so Karen came along. A little checking of computer records turned up the address of the Pimons. As the duo walked there, Karen and Erika had formulated a story.

"Ok, so what are we doing Karen?"

"Rosewood is doing a report on its best students, past and present. We have decided to make Merer our principle subject…and you're all helping me with my end of it." Karen said.

"Bingo!"

"Erika, I don't feel right about lying to these people…"

"We're not lying! Well, persay. We do want information on Merer, and it won't be used to hurt the Pimons. Besides, we can't exactly tell them the truth about our suspicions." Erika said.

"I suppose…"

"Ok Metabee, same to you. No yelling, no bragging, no complaining! You will be quiet and respectful, or I'll turn you into a microwave!" Erika warned.

"That's right Metabee." Ikki said, looking smug.

"You too Ikki!"

"Hey!"

"We're here." Brass said. Everyone turned to look at the wrought-iron gate that stood before them. Behind it lay a lovely field of flowers and trees in which a strip of road ran up to a large Victorian-style mansion. The upkeep was top-notch, but a sense of gloom hung over the house like a shard of death's murky black cloak.

"Nice place." Metabee said. "I wonder if the front and back of that house is in the same time zone."

"Metabee!"

Erika rang the buzzer. A second later a prim but stern female voice came on.

"Yes? What do you want?"

The harsh tone threw Erika, but fortunately Karen was there to pinch-hit.

"Good day miss. My name is Karen. I'm from Rosewood. I was wondering if we could speak to the Pimons."

"About what?"

"Um…their son, miss."

There was silence. A slight bead of sweat rose on Erika's brow at the sudden stillness in the air.

About 43 seconds later (if you really want to know), the intercom crackled again.

"Come in. But I will warn you know, if you are planning ANYTHING, you WILL regret it!" the voice said, snapping the last sentence like a whip. The intercom snapped off with all the cheeriness of a funeral, and a few seconds later the gates swung open.

"Why do I feel like I'm being invited to hell?" Metabee muttered as he followed the others in: All the Shakespeare he had read had put him in a dramatic mood.

The kids walked up the long driveway and up the stairs to what they assumed what the front door. Karen's ring brought a sour-looking woman who looked to be about sixty with graying hair and no makeup. She was dressed in a way that basically said "I work for people, but they make sure I look good doing it."

"Um…Mrs. Pimon?" Karen ventured.

"No. I'm her maid. And quite frankly, don't think because I invited you up here that I trust you! You children! You might think what you're planning to do is funny, but let me tell you…!"

"Let them in Suzanne." Another female voice said from the shadows behind the woman. "It's been eight years. Children may be senselessly cruel, but they also forget quickly." The shadow said, before disappearing back into the room she had come out from. Suzanne looked back at her employer, then turned back to the children and medabots.

"Ok, you can speak with her. But just remember one thing: prove her faith wrong, and you'll wish you'd never set foot on this property!" Suzanne warned, and turned down another hallway.

"I guess certain unenlightened people made the Pimons life even harder after the death of their son." Brass said,

"Why are people so senselessly cruel Karen?" Neutranurse asked. Karen had no answers for her medabot.

Serenity Pimon turned out to be a tiny Japanese woman, five feet at the tallest. She was about fifty, but looked twenty years older, with deeply-ringed eyes with a haunted, sad expression. From the pictures Metabee was look at on the nearby mantel, she had once been a beautiful woman, even in later years. Then her son had died, and with it, it seemed, Serenity's life as well.

Williard, on the other hand, was a very distinguished gentleman, the kind of man who kept looking good even as he aged, with neatly styled white hair and a short beard. He kind of reminded Ikki of Sean Connery. However, he had the same haunted look in his eyes, and his once tall frame was now stooped and bent, as if he carried a great weight on his shoulders. Karen and Erika had explained their supposed purpose while Ikki sat with them. Neutranurse was with Karen, and with Serenity's permission, Brass was looking through a photo album the former singer had brought out and Metabee was looking at the aforementioned mantel.

"We don't want to cause you any pain Mrs. Pimon, so if there is anything you don't wish to speak about that's ok." Erika said.

"That is not necessary child. They say talking about it…helps." Serenity said. Ikki wondered if he could get away with calling the woman a liar because from the looks of things, it hadn't helped in eight years and wasn't going to start any time soon.

"Merer is an interesting name. Where did you get it?" Erika said, trying to start with something small.

"I study ancient languages as a hobby. It's from a corrupted Gaelic tongue…roughly translated it means "Wondrous Child." I thought it would just be a name, but it turned out to be a prophecy of sorts. Maybe all parents say the same thing, but my son was truly wonderous." Williard said.

"It's true. Complications with his birth left me unable to have any more children…so I swore I would lavish all my love on my child, no matter how plain or special he turned out to be. But from the beginning, I could tell there was something special about him. He was just so…perfect. He never cried as a baby…never complained when we were trying to do something like comb his hair…our friends would tell horror stories about their children and we sometimes wondered if there was something seriously wrong with Merer. But nothing ever happened. It was like we had won some kind of child lottery or something…especially when we first saw his…talent."

"What happened?"

"Well, we were watching television…Merer was about two at the time and too young to understand anything outside of the most basic shows. So I gave him the remote to play with. I didn't pay attention since I found the show absorbing, and Merer was so quiet that I didn't have to constantly check on him. Well, I looked back ten minutes later and he had taken the remote apart. At first I was angry…until we called someone to fix it. He managed to put it back together in five minutes because NOTHING was damaged. It was taken apart perfectly. Nothing was damaged at all." Williard said, looking wistful and yet sad as he remembered his young son.

"That was the start. When he was three, he took the remote apart and put it back together. And when he was five…he took it apart and did SOMETHING to it before he reassembled it. We haven't had to change the batteries since."

_Whoa_. Metabee thought. He sidled up to said remote and looked inside. The batteries certainly looked old.

"And that was just one thing. He would put his toys together by himself. By six he was doing complex models…by the time he was eight we'd met Dr. Aki. He is your uncle right?"

"Yes."

"Well, Dr. Aki introduced him to higher levels of technology…and the speed in which he could figure it out and even IMPROVE on it was scary. But his greatest joy was medabots. We asked him why he liked them so much, he was about 13 or so…he said on an intellectual level they gave him the greatest challenge. He was always studying the perfect combination of tinpet, parts, and medal…he'd even mismatch and put the wrong medals in just to see if he could get it to work."

_Spyke shoulda met this guy._ Ikki thought.

"But on a personal level…he said it was like having a child, in some way. That floored me. It still does." Williard said.

"Despite my son's abilities, he managed to avoid the traps most children fall into. My husband and I are a firm believer that nurture is much more of a factor in who a person is then nature. We made sure to teach Merer to respect others and not to look down on them. That is what makes special as a species, I believe, and I have done that all my life. And it had helped me greatly, in business and life." Williard continued. "Everything seemed to be wonderful. I had more then enough to provide for my family, and my son was growing up to surely be something great. Everyone at Rosewood loved him…in retrospect, perhaps I should have seen the flood of good karma as an omen. Because as you might know…it all went wrong after he graduated from Rosewood."

"I'm afraid I don't…if you don't want to speak about it…" Erika said.

"No. I want to speak of this. If only to help others…Merer would have wanted that. After Rosewood, we enrolled Merer in another school, Trinity Night, for the rest of his education…and that's where it happened."

"What?"

Serenity Pimon's sad look suddenly flashed into rage.

"Those bullies! Damn them! CURSE THEM!" she hissed. Erika and Karen recoiled at the sudden blast of venom. The anger left as quickly as it had arrived, and Serenity now looked like she wanted to cry. Williard tried to comfort her, but he looked pretty mad himself.

"I'm sorry…but even now, eight years after the fact…they changed everything. I don't remember most of them, which is just as well, since most of them were brainless sheep…but I remember the ringleaders…all too well. David Gralfs and Annika Devin! They were both American, living here because their parents moved here to make money in their respective businesses…and they ran Trinity Night. With an iron fist, and that's not just hyperbole. They were like dictators in everything: their look, their mannerisms, and the way they dealt with people…it was sickening. In any case, they took an instant dislike to Merer. At the end of the first day David challenged him to a Robattle, that was one of their primary activities, challenging people and then beating them for their parts. They didn't need the parts, their parents could afford anything they wanted, but they did it because they liked to do it. Monstrous little savages!" Williard cursed.

"Dear…you're scaring the children." Serenity cautioned. Indeed, Karen had the look of s scared rabbit, like she was worried that Williard's anger at these people would be transferred to them.

"What? Oh, I am sorry. I forget myself sometimes…as I was saying, David challenged Merer to a Robattle. Merer refused: he said he had other things to do. David wasn't used to being refused, and tried to badger Merer into it. Merer would have none of it and left David cold. That was the start of it. The next day Merer came back to school and no one would talk to him. Most weren't doing it to be cruel though. They were terrified; terrified that doing so would bring the wrath of David and Annika's clique down on them. Because their little group had basically declared Merer Public Enemy No 1. They probably expected a quick break before he joined the rest of them under his thumb. But that didn't happen. Because Merer wasn't just smarter then them, he was vastly more mature. I like to think Dr. Aki helped him with that…" Williard said.

"They tried everything. Catcalls, insults, vandalizing his property, even some outright assaults, which thankfully never happened due to Trinity's security. And Merer weathered it all without a scratch. He just didn't care. He knew that they were just one step in his life, and giving them any attention at all was too good for them. As for the school…well, Merer said that if they were so concerned with status they wouldn't have made good friends anyway. So he befriended other people in the area, people more…down to earth, so to speak, whom David and Annika scorned due to their supposed "superiority". But the main thing they tried was Robattles. Every day, a challenge. Merer had a medabot…Starlight, her name was…"

Ikki blinked_. Starlight…_

"But he didn't Robattle often. Starlight was more of an assistant, a sounding board, a companion then something he used to fight with. He was more interested in building medabots then fighting with them. He did accept on occasion, and he usually won. He came home amused one day and we asked what had happened. He replied he had made an error in a Robattle and one of David's clique had won. The moron acted like he had just won the Super Bowl, as Merer put it. Merer just shrugged and said perhaps it is best they took joy in such small things, because they lacked in character and drive to accomplish much else. He went down to the basement to fix Starlight and that was the last I heard of it. Once we even hired a psychiatrist to make sure Merer wasn't internalizing what he really felt. The doctor couldn't find anything. He said we had done a superb job in teaching Merer how to endure such treatment. There was one thing that Merer quoted that summed it all up. "They laugh at me because I'm different. I laugh at them because they're all the same."

Serenity stopped talking, as she took out a handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes.

"And they HATED him for it. They hated him because he wouldn't give in. They hated him because he was smarter then them. They hated him because they KNEW they would be able to do nothing more with their parents' businesses when they inherited them while Merer would take ours and whatever else he chose to new heights. And most of all, they hated how he would build medaparts and give them away to his friends and other people, medaparts that allowed them to run circles around them and their ultra-expensive devices which had seemingly always gotten them victory. They hated him because he showed them the truth: they weren't superior beings, weren't "gods" that deserved to lord over other people. In truth they were pathetic, less then human…and I think that was what made them cross the line. They couldn't handle the truth."

Serenity stopped again. This time she kept dabbing at her eyes, and Williard picked up while trying to comfort her again.

"So they decided that since Merer seemed to be bulletproof, they would go after his supports. One of his friends was jumped by a group of youths and beaten…but he couldn't prove anything because he claimed he "hadn't seen any faces". Another one's parents were fired due to the connections Annika had…thankfully Merer used his own "stroke" to get them new jobs. But this was different. Merer could handle anything they threw at him, but the fact they were targeting others succeeded: it bothered him. Greatly. And the last straw came when David had one of his friends, whose father owned an advertising company, plant outright lies in on of the papers about my former company. At the same time, Annika wrote to one of those horrid tabloids with a bunch of supposed "dirt" she had managed to find out about my wife. The result was horrible. My company's stock plunged when the lies they had managed to get published came out. And in that, they succeeded. My son was absolutely furious that they had stooped to this level. He immediately went straight to the papers and exposed all the flaws and loopholes in both articles. They listened, and my company managed to rebound in a few days. The music community apologized to my wife as well for the nasty things they had supposedly claimed she did. But that didn't satisfy my son. He wanted more. They had finally awoke the sleeping giant within him, and he was going to show them they had played with fire, and were going to be incinerated."

Williard sighed.

"I'm not sure what he did, but from what I was able to gather, he went straight to them and threw down the gauntlet. There was a city Robattle tournament coming up, and David had won it three times, including the last two in a row. Merer finally granted him the Robattle he had wanted, but he said it would be at the tournament. If he beat David and Annika's medabot, they would have to confess their treachery. If not…I think he said he would "confirm" the false rumours they had published. They accepted, and for the following month, Merer threw himself into preparing Starlight. He'd come home early and work into the night, testing, studying, trying to perfectly prepare her for the tournament. He said he was doing it for us. He loved us, and he wasn't going to stand by and let some bullies affect our lively hood and our reputations. My son pulled every string he had. He even had Dr. Aki come in to take a look. Dr. Aki was a friend of Merer's as well as ours, and he didn't just come, he brought some of his top people. They went over Starlight with a microscope and gave Merer the thumbs up. It was THAT detail that haunts me to this day…"

Erika pondered, and decided she would.

"Why?" she asked, in the most respectful tone she could use.

"Well…the tournament came. And all of Merer's preparations served him well. He took apart every single opponent he fought, most of the time with ease. I think he set a new record when he bested his second opponent in twelve seconds. Some of David and Annika's clique were in the tournament as well. He beat them, but he wasn't satisfied. He wanted David and Annika, wanted their petty cruelty exposed before the world. And I could see it. David and Annika's medabot, Blademaster I believe, was powerful, and David had skills, but it was clear that Merer was going to take the tournament. They knew it, the crowd knew it, and Merer knew it. In a way they had succeeded: they had brought Merer down to their level. But Merer was going to show he was superior to them in that as well as in everything else. Merer actually met a friend of his in the quarter-finals, and I remember well what happened. He shook her hand, but said that he was sorry, he had to defeat her. And he did. It was clear it hurt him a bit, but he fought fairly and won rightfully. He bested his semi-final opponent almost as an afterthought, and then the final was at hand. Starlight vs Blademaster. And it was clear David was desperate. It radiated from him like an aura, a sour smell of fear and the realization his pride was about to suffer a blow from which it might never recover. It was clear David wasn't going to win…and then, somehow…"

Everyone was listening now, even Metabee and Brass, who had forgotten the picture they were looking at.

"The battle was about to begin when the referee came out and stopped it. And then…he said that Merer was robattling with illegal parts and disqualified him."

_Oh no…_Metabee thought. Erika looked like she would rather jam a needle in her eye then ask the follow up question, but somehow she managed to.

"Was he?"

"NO! Dr. Aki looked over Starlight with a fine-toothed comb, and found nothing. And even then, Merer would have never done that. He would have found no satisfaction in beating David and Annika via cheating. It was bull…er, crap, and the crowd knew it. They began booing and pelting the ring with garbage, but the referee said he had accurate evidence and his decision stood. Merer threw a fit, but the referee didn't budge. But I know my son. He as much had illegal parts in Starlight as a fruit fly has depleted uranium in its stomach. I had taught Merer to play fair, and in the most important day of his life that coda had betrayed him, for David…he cheated. I know for sure it was him and not my son. But…I couldn't prove it, and neither could Merer, as he watched David and Annika accept their "victory" trophy. The crowd nearly booed them out of the building, but they didn't care. All they saw was Merer, their faces dripping with self-righteous smugness…David actually said "Pretty good Merer, but I think you need a little more practice!"

Ikki jerked.

"Are you ok son?" Williard said at the sudden movement interrupted his recollection.

"Uh…yeah…someone must have just walked over my grave."

Wrong choice of words, as Serenity suddenly began to cry. Erika and Metabee gave him a dirty look, which Ikki replied with a look that said "Oops my bad sorry". Not really paying attention, Brass turned a page in the album she had forgotten and staring her in the face was the picture she had seen on the computer, the one that had appeared in the newspaper.

Williard was trying to comfort his wife, but at the same time he kept talking.

"That was the last time we saw him. He said he couldn't bear to look at us, that he failed us, shamed us…he ran out, got into his car, and drove out into the rain-swept night…and…"

And his car crashed, and that was the end of Merer Pimon…and perhaps the…? 

"My son was too good for this world…" Serenity sobbed. "I'm sure he'd in a better place now…" and that was all she got out before she broke down completely. Suzanne came running in and gave the children a furious look, but Williard stopped it with a shake of his head and a gesture. The children took the cue and got up and moved away as Suzanne replaced Williard as Serenity wept into her hands. They moved towards the fireplace, where Metabee could once again see all the awards Merer had won. And he understood now. It was a shrine.

"I'm sorry if we upset your wife." Karen said.

"It's ok. It wasn't your fault. You have been nothing but respectful to us, unlike some people after our son…moved on…I hope your article will be the same." Williard said.

"It will." Erika said, looking a bit guilty at the continuing white lie.

"It is ironic…about a year later there was a massive upheaval in the business world as mass corruption was brought to light in several companies. David and Annika's were among them…I think Annika's father lost everything, and David's dad commited suicide in the boardroom. I guess there is karma…" Williard said.

_Yeah, but in your case I somehow think it was too little, too late._ Metabee thought 

"Is there anything else you son liked to do, Mr. Pimon? Just to wrap things up."

Williard glanced at some of the pictures on the mantel.

"Yes. My wife was a singer before we met…quite a good one too. She retired after we had Merer. My son loved her voice and music, and one of his few disappointments was that he hadn't inherited any part of her voice. So he compromised and learned how to play a few instruments, using them to make the music his voice couldn't."

The group looked at each other.

"Any particular instrument?" Erika asked.

"Yes, there was one. He liked to play the flute."

The Pimon house was gone, but the revelations there still hung on the three children and medabots, as they walked in stony silence.

Metabee finally broke it.

"Dude…if this was a soap opera…I'd mock it for being just a tad too unrealistic. I guess truth is stranger then fiction."

"We're not wholly sure it's the truth." Brass said.

"Yes! Let us just look at it. A mechanical prodigy who has a particular love and talent for medabots loses a crucial battle in which he was trying to redeem slurs against his parents, whom he loves dearly. He then FAKES HIS OWN DEATH, and vanishes for eight years while he presumingly turns a Starlight into a Starkiller, and comes back with a goal of becoming the greatest medafighter on the planet! YES, THAT SOUNDS REALISTIC!" Metabee bellowed.

"But who else could it be? We have motive, means, and opportunity…oh god, what if that was an act? What is the Pimons helped their son fake his death, and are funding him in his quest?"

Everyone stared at Erika.

"Ok, maybe that's too far." she agreed.

"This scenario we have at the moment is too far! Surely this must be a coincidence!"

"If this is a coincidence, its odds are as large as the Grand Canyon. Why are you so sure about this being a red herring, Metabee?" Ikki asked.

"Uhhhhh…" Metabee sweatdropped.

"Metabee…are you WORRIED?"

"Uh well…you see…"

"Metabee, you're the one who kept saying we should fight this guy! You were the one who said we could win! And now when we finally know the possible truth behind it all, you're having doubts?" Ikki said incredulously.

"Ikki, that's just it! I could deal with it no problem when Flute was just a highly skilled medafighter!"

"But he still us. Why not just think of it that way?" Neutranurse suggested.

"Because I know we're not dealing with a skilled medafighter anymore! We're dealing with a mechanical genius with an IQ of 196, a talent for mechanical devices of which he specialized in medabots, a medabot he's had YEARS to work on, and an attitude! That even worries me!" Metabee said. He hated to show weakness, but in this case...

"But…Metabee…" Ikki stammered.

"Oh god, I just figured it out." Karen suddenly said. Everyone turned to her. 

"Starkiller. It's not just a fancy name…or a hardening of a previous name. It's a double entendre."

"Starkiller…as in Killer of Stars…as in someone who beats the best…a star…killer…" Ikki whispered.

"Holy metaphors! Why didn't I think of that? Now I can see it! Everything about him…it's an extension of what happened. He cloaks him in a dark mantle that resembles the Grim Reaper, aka DEATH. He quotes Macbeth, which is a play about a man who does horrid things to get what he wants and pays a terrible price for it. Even Starkiller's colour scheme is an extension of it!" Erika said.

"What…she's coloured black and blue…black and blue…I'm gonna beat you black and blue…" Metabee said. The look in his eyes showed he'd like to crawl under a rock, and was going to any second…

"Snap out of it Metabee! Believe in yourself!" Brass said. Metabee blinked.

"What? Believe in myself?"

"That's right! A year ago you and Ikki were arguing all the time, with you stuck in that medabot equivalent of ancient body. To think Ikki would get anywhere was laughable! And yet here Ikki is, the No. 3 Robattler in Japan! And you Metabee, a medabot with a rare medal, with the power of the Medaforce! Flute might beat you, sorry, MERER might beat you, but he won't even have to bother if you beat yourself!" Erika said. Metabee blinked again.

"You're right! Why should I let this guy scare me? With you, Ikki, he doesn't stand a chance!"

"Right! We'll make him play OUR tune!" Ikki said, as he and Metabee locked hands.

"The Metabee Bop!"

"Till he drops!"

"Well, I'm glad you're feeling confident again, so I'd better get back to my uncle. I'll see you later Ikki. Good luck." Karen said. She turned and left with Neutranurse.

"I have to go too. I want to do some more research. But I'll see you in a few hours! I want to make sure I see this Robattle!" Erika said. And then she and Brass were gone.

"Well, we got a few hours before we start looking. What do you want to do Metabee?"

"Me? I dunno."

"Well, I'm going back to the library."

"Can't let your precious Karen out of your sight, huh?"

"NO! I want to look something up!"

"Oh, ok! Well, I guess I'll head home! Meet you in a few hours?"

"You got it!"

The two went their separate ways.

In a nearby tree, Rokusho rose from his kneeling position.

"You think they're ready?" Baton asked.

"As they'll ever be. But all we can do is believe. Believe in them…and believe in possibilities."

The dark eye kept its gaze on Ikki as he headed back towards the library. The short figure who stared out through it snickered.

"Hope you enjoy the next few hours Mr. Tenryou. It will be your last!"

He turned on his heel, looking at another eye, which showed four dejected figures walking along the street.

"My former employees…BAH! How pathetic they have become without my aid! But it doesn't matter…they will serve for this. Because once this is done, nothing can stop me. THIS TIME, I WILL RULE THE WORLD! I WILL BUILD MY CONQUEST ON THE ASHES OF MY ENEMIES! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Whoa! Well, looks like Ikki has more problems then he knows! Who is that (well you probably know but I gotta try and stay mysterious)? Why does he desire such a horrific fate for Ikki Tenryou? Isn't it ironic in the chapter in which we learned Flute's identity he didn't even appear once? Is Metabee aware soap operas don't play on weekends? Find out next time in…

_Chapter 7: Prodigy_

_More Medabots, More Power!_


	7. Prodigy

Chapter 7: Prodigy

"Transport Metabee!" Ikki ordered as he pressed a button on his medawatch. A beam of light flashed from it and a second later Metabee appeared. And promptly fell on his face, as he had been in mid-step when he had been teleported.

"OW! IKKI! What was that for?" Metabee complained as he got up, rubbing his face.

"I just wanted to make sure we were together."

"WHAT? I was heading for our meeting place! I wasn't late either!"

"Just to be sure." Ikki said. The sun was low in the sky behind him, although it would be about an hour before it set.

"Just to be sure?" Metabee grumbled. "Your mom wants to reward you on the No. 3 position…do you get me a good medapart? Noooooo…you spend it on that upgrade that lets you teleport a medabot even without its medal!"

"What Metabee?"

"Nothing. Let's go."

"Let's. Hey, how's your shoulder?"

"As right as rain. And I must say it is pleasant not to have those shooting pains running up my arm anymore."

"Good. My watch reads you at 100 percent as well. I'd say we're ready."

"I was born ready."

A few minutes later, Ikki reached the spot they had set. To his slight surprise, Erika wasn't the only one there.

"What do you want now Samantha?" Ikki said to the Screws leader, as her two cronies hovered behind her.

"I'm coming along! You're the only one he hasn't beat Ikki! You seem to have a knack for defying the odds…and even if it fails you, Flute will be weak and ripe for a rematch, which I will win!"

"It's Merer now." Erika said. "At least we think it is."

"What?"

"Ikki, where is Brass?" Erika asked.

"Brass? Isn't she with you?"

"No! I sent her to check on Metabee hours ago!"

"And she was walking with me before you so rudely zapped me to your side!" Metabee said. Erika gave Ikki a dirty look.

"Hey, don't shoot the messenger!"

Brass came along a few minutes later.

"Metabee! What was that for?"

"Not my fault! His fault!" Metabee said, pointing to Ikki.

"Hey Spyke, is Crosserdog fixed yet? I want him handy in case we get to gang up on Flute again." Samantha asked.

"No…we're still stuck with Cyandog." Spyke replied.

"I resent the implication that I am a burden!" Cyandog said from Spyke's medawatch.

"Um, is there a reason we're just standing around? Has the author got writer's block or something?" Ikki asked. A second later a huge pile of bricks fell near the group.

"There goes the forth wall again." Metabee muttered.

"Hey guys!"

A second later Rintaro came running up. Karen was following behind him closely, and Ikki started to get moony-eyed again until he realized she was with Koji. He frowned.

"What are you doing here?"

"Karen told me about this, so I figured I'd come as well. If you don't win, it could be a prime opportunity for me!"

"No way! That's our opportunity!" Samantha said.

"YOU WON'T BE GETTING ANY OPPOURTUNIES! WE'RE GOING TO BEAT HIM!" Ikki roared.

"We'll see Ikki. For all we know, you're covering the fact that you're scared!"

"I'm not scared!"

"And neither am I! Except of snakes!" Metabee said.

"What? Snakes?" Ikki said, his brow arching in confusion. Brass looked annoyed.

"Erika said she could handle her research by herself and sent me to keep an eye on Metabee. He was watching television, and there was nothing on, so we wound up watching a horror movie marathon. Ever since that damn Anaconda movie Metabee's been scared of snakes."

"That snake was huge! And it regurgitated people!" Metabee replied, some fear in his voice.

"Metabee, THAT WAS A MOVIE! It wasn't a documentary!"

"But there are real anacondas!"

"Metabee, the anaconda in that movie moved at least FIFTY TIMES FASTER THEN THE AVERAGE SNAKE! I think it must have eaten a Lamborghini at some point!" Brass said in exasperation.

"Ok, enough! We aren't fighting a snake! Now is everyone here, or did you invite more people?" Ikki asked Erika and Karen. They both shook their heads no.

"Ok, let's go!"

"One problem…WHERE DO WE GO? Flute never gave us a location!"

"He said he'd find us. I guess we basically wander around until then. Anyone got any ideas?"

"Yeah, how the hell did the author wind up thinking this was a good idea?" Samantha asked. I've tired of the lightning bolt, so this time I dump a bucket of old coffee grounds on Samantha's head.

"ARGHHHHHHHHHH!"

"Ok, we're going! Wandering away we go!" Metabee said as everyone quickly ran away. Samantha groaned and followed.

* * *

Some time later, the group had checked several locations and come up with nothing. The only ones who weren't annoyed were Metabee and Brass, who had begun arguing the merits of horror films and hadn't stopped for half an hour. Ikki and Erika would have pondered how surreal said situation was, except they were too annoyed at Flute (Merer?)'s vague idea of directions. 

"Does he have any idea how big Japan is? For all we know he's on top of Mt Fuji!" Erika cursed.

"Ok, we've checked the Hop-Mart, my house, our old battle site, and Rosewood. What else?"

"How about where he was looking for Rokusho? And where he kicked our butts?" Spyke suggested. The latter got him a whack over the head by Samantha.

"Might as well." Ikki groaned.

The group headed over to the wooded area and spent another twenty minutes searching. Any worry Ikki might have had had long been replaced by boredom and exasperation.

"Why the author thought this was a good idea, I will never know." Ikki muttered.

"And another thing, I never want to watch any of those Children of The Corn movies again! Not only are they not scary, they're an insult! Even I had a brain I swear I would have felt the cells committing suicide by the sheer idiocy of those films!" Brass argued.

"Be thankful you never saw the Troll series." Metabee muttered.

"I mean, why do the children want to give people "peace"?"

"They have a different dictionary. To them "peace" means A) Killing you with a scythe B) Killing you with a BIGGER scythe C) Killing you with any other available sharp object!"

"SHHHHHHHH!" Koji suddenly said. "Can you hear that?"

Everyone fell silent. Ikki strained, but couldn't detect any sound until he cupped one of his hands behind his right ear.

"Yeah…sounds like…singing…"

Ikki wandered around a bit until he was able to pinpoint the rough direction from which the sound was coming from. Yes, it was definitely singing.

"Well, I guess we follow it." Ikki said.

"And if it's some kind of trap?" Metabee asked.

"Then keep your weapons armed." Ikki said.

The group followed the singing, which gradually became clearer and easier to pinpoint.

"La….la la la…"

Ok, so it wasn't much of a song. Then again, it was fine as a lure, and there was no need to try and make a top-selling single of it. To Ikki, it sounded strangely familiar.

The group followed the wordless (ok, ONE word) tune, eventually coming to its source.

Starkiller sat on a rock before a large tree, looking away from the group and towards the sky. It was her that was singing.

"Laaaaa…la la la la…la la la la la la…."

Her tune was joined by a brief flute solo, and everyone's eyes turned to where Flute was sitting in the tree, leaning against the trunk while he played. He finished and glanced down at the group. Starkiller finished her song at the same time(And I officially finish some of the worst writing I've ever done. Well if you read this far it gets better from here! Well it couldn't get any worse).

"So you've come, Ikki Tenryou. Well it least you have courage." Flute said, as he slipped his instrument up his sleeve and carefully jumped down from the branch. "Is Metabee's arm ok?"

"You betcha!"

"I see you brought company. Do you like an audience, or do you have some absurd plan that revolves around them channeling their combined medafighting progress into you or something that sounds as stupid?"

"What?"

"I'll take that as a no. Well ladies and gentleman, if you would mind getting out of our way…"

"Hold it! Win or lose, I want a rematch!" Koji blurted. Flute cocked his head.

"No."

"What? Why?"

"Because I've beaten you already. In fact I've beaten all of the best here. I hung around solely because I respect Ikki's abilities and wish for him to have a chance as well. Once I beat him, I am leaving Japan."

"What? Why?" Ikki said, echoing Koji.

"They say the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Japan is just my first step. There's a whole world of challengers out there…and I'd better get started. He who hesitates is lost."

"I think you're already lost…" Metabee said. "Isn't that right Flute…or shall I say…MERER PIMON?"

Even with his face obscured, it was clear that Flute was shocked. He looked at Starkiller and then looked back at Metabee.

"So you found me out…bravo. Perhaps you have potential as a reporter after all young lady." Flute, or Merer said. "Now, are we going to Robattle or not?"

"Then, it's agreed!" Mr. Referee said as he walked up (I ran out of fancy entrances). "I hearby…"

"Hold it!" Metabee said. "Not yet!"

"Not yet?" Mr. Referee said, looking confused.

"Yeah."

"Then what am I supposed to do? Stand here?"

"Yes!"

"Just what is the holdup?" Merer asked, apparently able to shrug off the fact his identity had just been revealed.

"I want to talk to you!"

"About what?"

"Merer…why?"

"Why what?"

"Why the heck are you doing this? Have you seen your parents…"

THAT got a reaction, as Merer visibly tensed.

"You visited my parents? Please tell me you didn't…"

"No! But it doesn't matter what WE did! It matters what YOU did? I mean, you fake your own death because you lost a Robattle…"

"I DID NOT LOSE THAT ROBATTLE!" Merer suddenly screamed. Metabee recoiled at the sudden explosion of emotion. Whatever calm Merer had been trying to maintain had apparently been tossed out the window by that remark.

"I was SCREWED out of the Robattle. Everyone and their mother KNEW I had no "illegal" parts inside Starlight! But the referee apparently had some great secret knowledge that I didn't possess...or at least that could be thought of as a possibility until I did a little checking on his bank records. A normal referee makes a certain amount of money doing his job and occasional bonuses. The variance is not much. So, when you consider the fact that the referee who claimed that I had illegal parts made several VERY large deposits in the days after that travesty…well, he must have won the lottery! Except he didn't, I checked that too. Which leaves one option: SOMEONE must have bribed him. Hmmmm, who could it be…HOW ABOUT THAT PIECE OF CRAP WHOM I WAS ABOUT TO EXPOSE BEFORE THE ENTIRE WORLD!"

"David?"

"Yes, David. My, you've done your research, haven't you? That worthless piece of whale feces knew I had him beat. He knew he and Annika would be exposed for what they were: petty, cruel schoolchildren whose lack of decency was only dwarfed by their inferiority complex. So they passed the referee some cash, and I was disqualified. I made a promise to my parents, and those pieces of sh…crap pull the rug right out from under me! They say cheaters never win. Whoever said that was a liar. Well, at least there seems to be some justice in the universe. Nine months afterward, that morally deficient referee was tossed out of the World Medabot Federation on charges of corruption. But it doesn't take back what he did."

"Um…can you prove any of these allegations?" Mr. Referee piped up.

"Prove it? Well it's not like I carry the records around with me…oh wait, YES I DO!" Merer snapped, as he reached under his cloak and tossed a folded-up wad of papers at Mr. Referee. He jumped back as if they were toxic, and then went and picked them up.

"You were carrying them around? Why?"

"It's always good to have a reminder of who you are and why." Merer said.

"Uh well…" Mr. Referee said as he looked over the papers. "Are you people going to talk some more?"

"Probably."  
"Uh ok, I'll be right back!" Mr. Referee said, and ran off.

" So you faked your death?" Ikki asked.

"No. As you might have guessed, I was rather upset that I had let my parents down and basically let those two get away with the horrid things they had done. In retrospect, it was a bad night to drive when you're normal, never mind highly distraught. The combination of that and the gale-force winds and rain-slick roads proved to be my undoing…I went right over the edge and down the hill. However…I didn't die. No. I had done some work on my car that was designed to protect me in the event of a crash. It worked…to a degree. At least until I went out the front window. That wasn't pleasant, even if it was safety glass. I landed some feet away, and my car unfortunately sprung a leak and exploded. A pity, my dad gave that to me for my sweet sixteen…but the end result was, I was alive. I had a broken leg, some cuts and bruises, and…" Merer trailed off.

"So what happened? Why did everyone think you were dead?"

"Ah, you see Metabee…that was not my fault. I didn't run away and hide from the ambulance. No. I was taken to the nearest hospital, fixed up, and given a room while I pondered how lousy the last few days had been. I figured my mom and dad would show up, and after that I'd figure out a way to expose David and Annika's cheating. When they didn't show up I got suspicious. And when the nurse came in and called me by the wrong name…well, I suspected there had been a mixup. And in that error lay…opportunity."

"All those deaths…" Erika said.

"Indeed. I wasn't the only one who had an accident that night. Five people died, as well as a score of injuries from various automobile wrecks. The hospital was overloaded…and in the process, my records got mixed up. I later found out there had been another car crash close to mine…unfortunately whoever it was got caught inside the wreckage and died when it went up in flames…"

"And the mixup caused the hospital to tell your parents that it had been your car." Erika concluded.

"Exactly. Indeed, there was so little left of the man or the car that a positive ID would have been all but impossible. True, they could have checked my dental records…but they didn't. My parents thought I was dead. And when I realized this…I saw a chance to redeem them and myself. So soon afterward, I checked myself out. A little later I went into the hospital records and erased them so no one could discover this little accident. Computers are so useful, don't you think?"

"But…they…"

"They thought I was dead. In any case, this caused them to throw out Starlight, since she reminded them of me. I retrieved her, and once I explained this little drama that my life had become, I was ready to begin. First I needed money, since I couldn't access my parents' funds anymore. This wasn't too difficult: I just rolled up my sleeves and designed some new medabots and medaparts and sold them to the Medabot Corporation through a dummy company. On that note, I must confess to a possible small amount of cheating in our Robattle, Koji. I perhaps had an unfair advantage when it came to countering your Sumilodon's Flexor sword. After all, I designed it."

"No way." Koji said.

"Yes. Next, I had to deal with those people who humiliated me and shamed my parents. In the end, that proved all too easy. I guess I understand why David and Annika were the way they were. Life is far more nurture then nature, and considering the sheer amount of corruption and falseness I unearthed when I dug through their company's records, I really can't blame them for being such worthless human beings. We learn from our environment. Well, at that point I was really beyond caring. I passed the information I had acquired to people who would be interested and got out of the way as it all went to hell."

"You caused those companies to go bankrupt." Ikki whispered, as he remembered one of the last things Williard had said to him.

"They brought it on themselves. I was only the catalyst. After all, if David and Annika and their cronies were such superior human beings, they could surely do great things with their life? Right?" Merer said in a voice dripping with sarcastic scorn. "Well, it doesn't matter to me any more anyway. Those were merely a few loose ends I had to tie up. Once they were done, I went to work on my main goal…to create a medabot that could never lose. That could adapt to any threat, any obstacle, any Robattle strategy or technique. I spent years studying everything down to the most minute details…watching literally hundreds of taped Robattles and looking for patterns, quirks, strengths and weaknesses, and what, when, and why medafighters did what they did. And I worked out counters, strategies, and maneuvers… and then worked on designing a medabot that could carry out all of them. It took me eight years…eight years in which I sweated and bled and cried all day and all night for weeks on end…but I finally accomplished it. I created a masterpiece, an unstoppable fighting machine. I turned a Starlight…into a Starkiller." Merer said, and flourished, gesturing at Starkiller. She just looked serious.

"And I'm going to show the world I should have never lost that Robattle in the most complete and total way I can: I am going to face every single great medafighter on this planet and beat them. And I am going to do it through undeniable skill and ability that no one can muddy up or claim fraudulent. It might take a long time…but I will do it. And then I will go home. My goal will have been achieved: I am a champion. And there will never be any doubt in anyone's mind of it. Ever. Again. I will not be screwed once more. Now do you understand, Metabee?"

There was silence.

"Well yes…except for one thing." Metabee finally said.

"What?"

"YOUR PARENTS DON'T CARE IF YOU'RE THE GREATEST ROBATTLE CHAMPION IN THE WORLD OR HISTORY OR ANYTHING!" Metabee bellowed. "They're sitting at home slowly dying from the horrible feeling that the son they loved so much is dead, WHEN HE ISN'T! HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO THEM?"

"How could you understand how I feel? You're just a damn medabot!" Merer shot back.

"They feel no shame at those nasty things David and Annika did to them! All they feel if grief! They don't want a master Robattler on a quest! THEY WANT THEIR SON!"

"Yeah! Your pain is baseless, Flute! Er, Merer!" Ikki added. Merer chuckled.

"Ah Ikki. When you get a little older you will find that even if a pain is baseless…that doesn't make it any less real."

"THAT DOESN'T CHANGE ANYTHING!" Metabee roared, hopping up and down, the memory of Serenity breaking down in tears making him more furious by the minute. "WHY DON'T YOU USE THAT IQ OFF THE CHARTS YOU HAVE AND ACTUALLY **THINK? **HOW CAN YOU LOOK AT YOURSELF IN THE MIRROR KNOWING WHAT YOU'VE PUT THEM THROUGH!"

Merer's hand curled up in a fist.

"You should know better then anyone, Metabee. Because every time I have to look in a mirror, I see THIS!"

And he reached back and pulled back his hood.

To a doctor, it probably wouldn't have seem that bad, but too a group of kids and medabots who had very little experience with injuries, it was enough. Some of them gasped, and some just let their jaws drop in horror. Erika covered her hand with her mouth as Ikki's eyes went wide.

"Good god…"

Merer looked pretty much the same he had in the photos, abet a bit older. He had grown his hair out a bit and wore it in a tightly tied ponytail behind him.

_He has his mother's eyes._ Ikki thought.

But all that was hardly noticeably next to the scar. It seemed to consume the whole lower right side of his face, a hideous spread of black, disfigured flesh that looked like an oil slick was trying to eat Merer's face. Slashes of burned tissues stabbed outward across Merer's face, leaving lines of blackness above and below his eye, near the corner of his mouth, and under his chin. _Like a star._

"Flaming gasoline from my car. I suppose it could have been worse. A little lower and it would have been my throat on fire. A little higher and it would have been my face. But I'd say it was still pretty bad, eh?"

"Uh huh." Was all Ikki could manage.

"It's kind of hard to think about other ways to live your life when you have to look at this every day. Wouldn't you say Metabee?"

"Uhhhhhh…uggghhhhh….uhhhhhhh…" Metabee stammered. He'd seen Merer's face once before, and it wasn't any less horrifying the second time.

"I thought not. Now let's Robattle. Once I beat you, I have more people to challenge. And to destroy. I'll build myself a throne on the broken bodies of those who dared do this to me! I'll show this world that cheaters never prosper! And I'll show this world that a jack of all trades IS A MASTER OF ALL!"

At that moment, Metabee was glad he was a medabot. Because for all his adaptability, he was always the same being. No matter what parts Ikki gave him, or what tinpet his medal resided in, he always would be himself.

Because that was far better then this hideously malleable clay humans seemed to be made of, material that could be shifted and changed and _warped_ by unseen hands to horrific results. And that was what had happened with Merer Pimon. He had tried to do everything the right way and life had screwed him over anyway, molding him into the hideous wreck obsessed with victory that stood before him.

Those bullies had won anyway. Their actions had made Merer as bad as them.

Somewhere, Metabee was sure they were laughing. Or something was.

"Now do you want to keep talking Metabee, or shall I get on with beating you?" Merer said.

That snapped Metabee out of his thoughts.

"Beating me? I don't think so! Let's get metabusy!"

"Yeah!" Ikki said.

"You go dudes!" Rintaro added.

"Show him everything I taught you Ikki!" Samantha said.

"For the last time, YOU TAUGHT ME NOTHING!"

"Good. Anything else to say Metabee?" Merer said.

"Yeah! "You should be women and yet your beards forbid me to interpret that you are so!"

"………………………….WHAT?"

"Shakespeare! You're not the only one who can quote it, smartypants!"

"I know it was Shakespeare, but you misquoted the line horribly. You basically called me an ugly woman."

"What? Uh, yeah I knew that! Well then, uh, "Thy head is as full of quarrels as an egg is full of meat"!"

"So you're saying I'm bad at arguing?"

"Uhhhhhh…aha! I will cut off the head of your maid, or your maidenhead!"

Merer snorted as he tried to contain a laugh.

"Metabee, you used that line SO wrongly I'm not even going to tell you what you just threatened to do to me."

"WHAT? Ok, now I'm really angry! Well then, try this! And even I can understand it! "Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit, for I am sick when I do look on thee!"

Merer smirked.

"Well you finally got one right. But if you want to quote the Bard Metabee, let me show you how it's done. "Thou losest labour, as easy mayst thou the intrenchant air. With thy keen sword impress as make me bleed…Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests. I bear a charmed life, which must not yield, to one of woman born." Merer said dramatically. Metabee tried to think of a comeback when Ikki suddenly stepped forward and inhaled.

"Despair thy charm! And let the angel whom thou still hast served Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb, untimely ripped!" Ikki said with a dramatic flourish, Everyone's jaw dropped.

"……………………..Whoa. Ikki, where did you get that?"

"He liked to quote Macbeth right? So I went back to the library and read the play. When I saw that line, I thought he might pull it out. So I memorized the follow-up line." Ikki said, looking smug.

Merer chuckled again.

"Well met my esteemed foe. Now let me get on with destroying you."

"I don't think so!" Erika said. "You think you're special Merer? You think you're a prodigy? Well, so is Ikki!"

"WHAT?" Ikki and Metabee said at the same time.

"This child took an ancient Medabot and a medal he fished out of a river which held the most arrogant, disagreeable annoying junkheap of a medabot personality and yet he had the drive and the talent to make it all the way to No 3 in a country full of talented medafighters! If that's not the talent of a prodigy, then tell me what is!"

Merer smirked."Watch and learn child. Now Ikki…you think you can beat me?"

"YEAH!"

"Get ready to hear the Metabee Bop, till you drop!"

"Very well then. Perhaps you will beat me… "Yet I will try the last. Before my body I throw my warlike shield!" Merer yelled as he tossed his cloak off. With a sudden quick motion, he snatched his medawatch off and tossed it in the air, pining it to the right side of his face above the burn as a mike extended out of it. Ikki blinked as he realized how much Merer had done to his medawatch, turning it into a walkie-talkie. He raised his own Medawatch.

"Transport Silversword!" he said. A beam shot out of his medawatch and engulfed Metabee's left arm. It vanished and was replaced with an armoured silver appendage, from which a small blade poked from a heavy chunk of armour above the digits.

Merer smirked again. The burn scar on his face made the expression look demonic.

"Lay on, "Macduff." And damn'd be him that first cries, 'Hold, enough!"

"Then, it's agreed!", and a second later Mr. Referee rose up under Merer's discarded cloak, as he pulled out a flute and played a few sour notes. "I hereby declare this to be a submission Robattle between Ikki Tenryou and Merer "Flute" Pimon! The rules are…"

"WAIT! I request a special set of rules!" Metabee interrupted. "If I win this Robattle, Merer Pimon has to stop this silly quest he's on and go home!"

"Uh…well?" Mr. Referee inquired to Merer.

"I accept." Merer said. As if on cue Starkiller took a small leapt forward, readying herself for combat.

"Ok! This Robattle has special rules! If Merer Pimon loses, he has to go home! What happens if he wins?"

"I'll think of something." Merer said.

"Well then, this is officially a submission Robattle! Whoever stops the other medabot from functioning wins!"

"Starlight…" Metabee said as he faced his opponent.

"That's not my name. It was once, but no more. I am Starkiller, Merer Pimon's masterpiece, and the song war plays as he rides across the battlefield!" Starkiller said. With a jerk Metabee finally realized why Starkiller could sing so well, and why it had sounded familiar. _She has Serenity Pimon's voice. Merer programmed his mother's voice into her._

"Medafighters READY….?"

"Well then "Starkiller"! This isn't your fault, and it's gonna hurt me to kick your medabutt all over this forest…" Metabee said as he raised his left arm and a two-foot silver blade sprang from his new arm. "But not as much as it's going to hurt you!"

Starkiller peeked over her shades even as her sword popped from the sheath on her back. She caught it and ignited it.

"That's what I like about you Metabee…" she said as she pointed the sword at him. "You're not afraid to be a dreamer."

Once again the air was still, as Metabee looked at his opponent he had to battle, and the man whom he hoped he could save.

And in a nearby tree, Rokusho turned to Baton.

"Now it will be decided."

"ROBATTLE!"

Once again, it had begun. And this time, only one would be left standing.

_Well, what a time to end a chapter! Will Ikki and Metabee be able to best the twisted genius and furious drive of Merer Pimon? Or will they become just another notch on his belt? And what was the rest of the group doing while Merer and Metabee were standing around arguing? What nasty thing will the author do to the next character who assaults the forth wall? Find out in_

_Chapter 8: Blood, Sweat and Tears_

_More Medabots, More Power!_


	8. Blood, Sweat, and Tears

Chapter 8: Blood, Sweat, and Tears

"ROBATTLE!" 

For once, there wasn't a furious explosion of action as Mr. Referee's hand fell. Instead, Metabee and Starkiller stood absolutely still, each daring the other to make the first move. Ikki and Merer shared the same look, as everyone stood in silence.

In the end, they both made the first move, as Metabee snapped out his right arm and opened fire even as Starkiller ran to the side as she flipped her sword into her arm and started shooting even before her cannon was fully formed. The two dashed and dodged as their shots tore up the battlefield, neither of them scoring a hit as each got closer and closer to the other.

With a spray of dust, Starkiller leapt to try and get a better shot. But Metabee intercepted her in mid air and their arms locked, each grappling with the other as they tried to aim their weapon at their opponent and let off a point-blank shot. The two spun and tangled before both hit the ground hard.

With Metabee's new sword weapon pinning Starkiller's cannon to the ground as he jammed his other arm against the side of her head.

"Gotcha, dead to rights."

Starkiller didn't even blink. Instead, her sword suddenly sprang back out of her arm, flipping up so quickly Metabee didn't realize it was there until it was at his throat.

"Dead wrong."

Deadlocked, the two stared into each other's eyes.

Metabee pulled his arm away as he pushed away from the sword, even as Starkiller jumped and spun like a screwdriver away from his opponent. She landed and twirled her sword, ready to block any of Metabee's shots.

Metabee didn't shoot. Instead he lowered his laser cannon and raised his Silversword. The blade extended further to about 3.5 feet.

"I learned something from all those fights with Sumilidon."

"I'm going to teach you a few more things. Like all new ways to feel pain." Starkiller shot back, and leapt. Metabee blocked her laser sword and engaged her in a furious duel. More dust plumed up around them: the ground they were standing on was rather dry. Which was odd due to the presence of a nearby small lake. Well, they weren't there to ponder nature.

"Good Metabee! Keep an eye out for an opening!" Ikki said.

"I spent five years programming Starkiller's sword style. It doesn't HAVE openings!" Merer shot back.

Indeed, Starkiller seemed to be the superior sword-user, as she caught Metabee's blade between the twin tuning-fork like blades of her sword and twisted down, leaving Metabee open. Metabee quickly raised his cannon but Starkiller reached out and clamped her hand over it. If he fired it with an obstruction he'd blow his own cannon off as well as Starkiller's hand. The two struggled as they grappled with each other.

"Hope you brought a lunch, because I'm taking you to school!" Metabee taunted as he started kicking at Starkiller. Starkiller blocked all the kicks with her legs.

"Hope you have a dirty time-keeping mechanism, because I'm going to clean your clock!" Starkiller shot back, and started kicking as well. Metabee aped her strategy by blocking them with his legs.

"Well, we're tied again. Got a gamebreaker?"

"Yeah. I'm gonna use my head!" Starkiller snapped, and she reared back and thrust her head forward, slamming it against Metabee's face. Metabee staggered back and barely dodged a follow up slash before he let loose with a storm of laser shots, forcing Starkiller to retreat.

"MISSILE LAUNCH!" Metabee yelled as he fired off his seeking rockets. Starkiller switched to the Nova Cannon and blew them out of the air.

"Please, do you think…"

"BOO-YAH!" Metabee yelled as he was suddenly right in Starkiller's face. Starkiller only had a second to realize the missiles had been a fake-out before Metabee slammed her fist into her face, throwing her backwards. She sprawled on the ground near Merer, who looked very displeased.

"That was sloppy Starkiller! Get with it, unless you want me to sell you as scrap!"

"Yes master…" Starkiller said as she got to her feet. Ikki's heart went out to the medabot. It wasn't her fault her creator's grip on reality was slowly losing more and more cohesion.

But that wasn't going to deter him, even though it now seemed like Merer was a triple threat: skilled medafighter, genius, and quite possibly a psychopath.

"Starkiller, Speed Mode!"

Starkiller switched and blasted at Metabee, faking out and driving behind him before she reversed and drove an elbow into his back. He yelled and turned and walked right into Starkiller's follow up spin kick, sending him flying backwards. He flipped and landed to his feet.

"Laser cannon!" he yelled as he fired. The shots barraged Starkiller and she was forced to switch back to Warrior mode to avoid excessive damage due to her non-armoured state. While she was changing Metabee leapt and swung his Silversword., but he arrived too late and Starkiller parried. She kicked him in the gut and then tried to stab him when he was down. Metabee rolled away and fired again. Starkiller took a few more hits.

"Warning: Body 30 percent damage." Merer's modified medawatch told him. He growled. He had fought Ikki already! The medabot shouldn't have been able to even scratch him, even if that child Erika insisted he was a "fellow prodigy". In he was, woe to him, as Merer had found out: Common society detested the special. It made them feel inferior, and they always reacted by trying to destroy rather then recreate themselves into something better.

"Argh! Starkiller, what are you doing! Wake up! DESTROY HIM!"

"Yes master…!" Starkiller replied. But Metabee could tell by her tone she was becoming afraid, and not of losing the Robattle. She was scared of what her medafighter was becoming.

Then he had to move as Starkiller brought her Nova Cannon back out and fired at him. Metabee dove behind a rock, but Starkiller just started to blast it, filling the air with dust and pelting the assembled observers with shrapnel. Neutranurse quickly threw up a shield to protect the group.

"MISSILE LAUNCH!" Metabee yelled as he fired off more rockets. As they flew at Starkiller Metabee dashed from behind his rock, firing. Confused, Starkiller took some more hits and nearly got blasted by the rockets before she moved away at the last second.

"Starkiller, Nova Lance!" Merer ordered. Starkiller tossed her sword up and clamed them between her fists, rocketing at Metabee. Metabee dodged again and Starkiller's sword impaled into another tree, getting stuck.

"HA! MISSILE…!"

Starkiller yanked one arm from the Nova Lance formation and backhanded Metabee as hard as she could. Metabee took the blow on the side of the head, stumbling and nearly causing his missiles to misfire and blow his head off. Starkiller yanked her sword out of the tree and swung, but Metabee brought up the Silversword and blocked it. Starkiller swung low, Metabee parried. She spun and did a roundhouse swing from that, but Metabee blocked that too (In the back of his head, Ikki wondered if Sumilidon or Rokusho had secretly been giving Metabee lessons). Starkiller pushed Metabee's Silversword aside and shot out her fist in the opening. Only Metabee had the same idea and had taken the course of action, and the end result was the two Medabots punching each other in the face as hard as they could.

"Ohhhhhh." Ikki groaned as Metabee stumbled back. He shook his head, trying to clear his senses.

"Starkiller, you idiot! What are you doing out there? Why is he still standing?" Merer yelled. Ikki glanced sideways. This was worse then he thought. Eight years of isolation and repression combined with the fact he wasn't taking Metabee apart like a can of peas was starting to cause Merer to unwind.

"Hey Merer! Shut up! Quit acting like an animal!" Ikki yelled back. Merer shot a withering glare at Ikki.

"Another saying for you, child. 'He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man!' STARKILLER, RIP HIM APART!"

Metabee gasped as Starkiller redoubled her efforts. Their swords clashed again and again, and Metabee, worried, stole a quick look at the notch that was developing in his blade. The Silversword melee blade medapart was composed of good material, but Starkiller's blade was pure energy, and pure energy was a lot harder to break then metal.

Metabee shoved backwards, firing his laser cannon again. Starkiller deflected the shots with her sword and lashed out. Metabee yelled in pain as the sword caught him across the body, knocking him to the ground. To add further injury to already severe injury, Starkiller kicked Metabee in the ribs as hard as she could, tossing him across the battlefield.

"Warning! Body 60 percent damage! Left arm 40 percent, right arm 37 percent, head 44 percent. Legs 70 percent" Ikki's medawatch intoned.

"Dammit!" Ikki cursed, kicking the ground in frustration. It just caused more dust clouds to fly. Ikki coughed from the raw air.

Merer grinned. The burn made him look like a demon grinning over a claimed soul.

"Finish it."

Starkiller flipped backwards and leapt into the air, as blue energy began to gather on her.

"On no! Not this again!" Samantha said.

"But boss! We're not even fighting! Won't it be fun to see Ikki take this?"

"Believe me Sloan…NO ONE deserves this."

Ikki's eyes widened as Metabee tried to get up. With his damaged limbs, there would be no way he could run. There wasn't even any cover he could hide behind, the only walls around were the walls of dust…

Walls of dust…

"EARTH TO IKKI! What do I do?" Metabee yelled over the Medawatch. Ikki looked up and down from Starkiller to the ground.

Above, Starkiller completed her charge. Her cannons snapped open.

"See ya, wouldn't wanna be ya."

"NOVA STORM!"

"IKKI!" Metabee bellowed.

Starkiller opened fire. The scores of blue laser shots arced down at Metabee. His green eyes widened.

"This is gonna…"

"METABEE! DON'T MOVE!" Ikki ordered.

"WHAT? Ikki, have you lost it?"

"Metabee, if you never listen to me again, listen to me now…DON'T MOVE!"

"But I…"

Then the shots began raining down on Metabee. He raised his arm above his head as some hit him.

"IKKI…YOU'D BETTER BE…" Metabee said, before his words were lost in the noise, even as he was lost in the clouds of dust, kicked up by the massive barrage of shots. It washed over the group like a desert sandstorm.

Merer coughed on the dust, but that didn't impede his speech.

"KEEP FIRING!"

And Starkiller did just that. The four lightning-esque shots arced down into the dust and exploded, and then the final two blasts shot down. The shock wave nearly knocked the group off their feet. They struggled against the wind as Starkiller landed. The dust was so thick she couldn't see her sword clearly as it fell down, and instead of catching it, it nearly landed on her head.

Merer waved his hand in front of his face, as if that could somehow dispel the dust that had been kicked up by the shots.

"Metabee…" Ikki said as he got up. He'd been closest to the blasts and hence had been knocked flat on his rear. "Metabee?"

"It's over kid. Declare me the winner." Merer said to Mr. Referee. Correction: he said it to where he thought Mr. Referee was, since the dust was so thick. _My god this ground is acrid. Maybe I should have waited for a rainstorm…_

"Uh, well…I can't really…"

"Look buddy, NOBODY could have survived that."

"Then just call me Nobody!"

Merer's eyes went wide, and he whirled to look in the direction of the voice. The dust was finally clearing.

Metabee stood there, lowering his arms. He was surrounded by craters, one which ended less then a foot from him. But he was still standing.

"Metabee!" Ikki said happily.

"How…how…" Merer stammered.

"Simple Merer. This ground is loose and light, and hence explosions cause dust clouds very easily. From what I learned from my friends, the first part of your attack had little power. It's a technique designed more to panic and set them up for the following blasts, where the real power of the attack is. By having Metabee stand still, I forced you to fire all your shots in the same general area…and that caused a dust cloud so thick your medabot couldn't lock on to mine properly, and you missed. As my medabot likes to say, dude, I rock."

"Hey!"

Merer blinked. He couldn't believe he had just been out-maneuvered by a child.

"And I know one last thing. That attack severely drains your medabot." Ikki said. "Metabee!"

"Way ahead of ya Ikki! MISSILE LAUNCH!"

"Starkiller, defense! QUICKLY!"

Starkiller converted to Armour Mode and got her shields up just in time. The missiles struck them and exploded.

"MISSILE LAUNCH! MISSILE LAUNCH! MISSILE LAUNCH!" Metabee yelled as he fired off round after round of rockets, determined to keep Starkiller from running away again. Starkiller vanished in the explosions as more dust was kicked up.

Finally, Metabee ran out of missiles (I figured he could only carry so many).

"Starkiller…?' Merer said, letting, for the first time, the possibility of losing enter his mind.

The dust blew away quickly this time.

Starkiller's right shield was completely smashed, and the left one was a mangled wreck. It was clear Starkiller had taken severe damage from the barrage of missiles. But she was still standing.

Metabee blinked.

"I…CAN'T…LOSE!" Starkiller screamed, breaking off her ruined shields. Chunks of her armour broke off as well as Starkiller snatched up her sword and ran at Metabee.

Metabee got up his Silversword as Starkiller slashed at him. But this time the blow was clearly sloppy. Starkiller was hurting.

"Starkiller, you're nearly dead on your feet! Why do you keep fighting?" Metabee asked as he dodged and blocked the slashes.

"Because I can't lose!"

"Starkiller, you…"

"Merer said I can't lose! His word is law! I can't fail him!"

Metabee didn't think Starkiller shared her creator's problems, so that left one possibility: she was afraid to lose. Not because she was afraid of what her creator would do to her, but what it would do to _him._

But he couldn't stand down. If he lost, Merer would turn and get on a plane, off on a mad quest that only made sense to him. And the Pimons would be left, back in that house that wasn't really a home any more, slowly dying. It wasn't something they deserved.

Then again, neither did Merer. He hadn't asked for this life.

Metabee found himself caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.

"STARKILLER! DON'T LET UP NOW!"

Screw it. Better to drown if it spited the devil.

Starkiller slashed again…

And the sword flew out of her hand as Metabee caught her on the hand, disarming her. She screamed. Merer growled as his medawatch told him about the damage.

"Starlight…" Metabee said.

"THAT'S NOT MY NAME!"

And Starkiller leapt backwards as her rocket blades extended.

"NOVA LANCE!"

Nova Lance? But she doesn't have her… 

Then Starkiller blasted forward, and Metabee learned too late that Starkiller didn't need her sword as both her fists slammed into him, throwing him backwards. Starkiller slammed on the brakes and leapt sideways, snatching up her sword.

Metabee rolled along the ground and leapt to his feet as Starkiller leapt at him again. He raised the Silversword…

KLA-KRLLAANGGGGG! 

Everyone gasped as Metabee's Silversword blade snapped off, spiraling through the air. Metabee's eyes widened.

"OH SH-"

Starkiller leapt up, slashing her sword up in an arc. Metabee screamed as he was knocked upward due to the attack.

It all seemed to go in slow motion for Ikki, as his medabot was lifted up by the blow, Starkiller leapt up with him and did a forward somersault, bringing her sword down and across Metabee. Gravity abruptly reclaimed its hold on Metabee as he hit the ground, bounced once, and landed in a crumpled heap.

"Metabee…!"

"Legs damaged 100 percent! Function ceased! Left arm disabled! Right arm 90 percent damage, function ceased! Head damaged 80 percent, missiles expended." Ikki's medawatch told him.

"Ikki…" Metabee groaned.

Ikki looked at his medabot and then back at Starkiller, and his mind slowly slid over just how great Merer's mind was at medafighting. Even when he was caught off-guard, he had robattled in such a way that he had managed to keep the damage spread out over Starkiller's medaparts, so while all were heavily damaged, there were still all working. Unlike Metabee, who was now as vulnerable as a fish in a barrel.

He looked at his friends, looking for an idea, a plan, anything. They all looked back at him.

Then Erika mouthed one word.

Believe.

Ikki looked at his closest friend, then nodded.

"Starkiller, finish him off. This time for real. Nova Storm."

"Yes master!" Starkiller said, and prepared to leap.

"No! Do it on the ground!"

"The ground?"  
"Yes. He's not hiding in any dust clouds this time! I want all the shots to hit him squarely! I want nothing left but metallic ash!"

"Master…"

"DO IT!

"I will have to forgo the second blast if I do it on the ground master…"

**_"DO IT!"_**

"Merer…" Ikki whispered.

Starkiller tossed her sword above her and began to charge up again.

"Ikki…" Metabee said as managed to drag himself back up. But he was literally dead on his feet.

"Metabee, believe!" Ikki said.

"Believe…" Metabee said. _Believe in myself. Believe I can win. And believe I can save this boy's sanity…or take it from him forever._

"STARKILLER…"

"I…BELIEVE!" Metabee yelled.

Golden power flashed on Metabee's medal, shimmering and then enveloping his whole body. Behind her shades, Starkiller cocked a metaphorical eyebrow. _What the…_

"Starlight, I say, this is a price I have to pay, but to save a boy who's lost his way…HELP ME WIN THIS ROBATTLE TODAY!" Metabee called in his version of the children's rhyme as the power built to a crescendo within him.

"FIRE!" Merer ordered. Starkiller let loose with the barrage of laser shots, which was cut short by her modified routine. She raised her arms as her mega-cannons armed. Metabee thrust his arms above his head.

"IT'S TIME…TO KISS YOUR BOT GOODBYE!"

Starkiller fired the twin blasts, somehow managed to keep from behind knocked off her feet.

The power flew at Metabee.

He slammed his arms out.

"**_MEDAFORCE!"_**

The golden bolt flew from Metabee's hands, blasting out. The small laser shots vanished, blown away by the sheer power of the attack.

Starkiller reached up to catch her falling sword, alarmed at the first phase of her attack being so easily stopped. But the twin blasts remained, as Metabee's shot bore down on Starkiller.

"How in the hell…?" Merer said.

The blasts slammed into each other, and for a moment the world was filled with light.

And then the Medaforce blasted through the Nova Storm blasts, heading straight for Starkiller.

"Master…!" she cried, as the attack filled her vision.

"STARKILLER!"

The explosion drowned out the cry as the flash of light blinded everyone. Unseen, Starkiller flew back and hit the ground. Her shades flew off and landed next to her.

And then her sword came down directly on the sunglasses, shattering them into pieces.

The song was over.

"…………………………………Function ceased! The winner is METABEE!" Mr. Referee declared.

Metabee chuckled weakly as he fell, landing on his rear. He wasn't just shocked. His legs literally couldn't keep him up any more.

"Dude….I rock."

"Metabee!" Ikki cried triumphantly, as he ran to his medabot. "You did it!" he said, as he reached out and clasped hands with him.

"WE did it Ikki. We believed."

"Yeah."

"Starkiller…" Merer said, his voice low. He fell to his knees and slowly picked up the medal that lay at his feet. "How…? How could you lose?"

Slowly, Mere raised his other hand and placed it on the hideous burn that warped his face, sliding his hand over the ruined tissue before he buried his face in his palm.

"How could…_I_ lose?"

The sense of victory Ikki felt was abruptly halted as he remembered Merer. He looked over to where the scarred adult was, kneeling on the ground next to his motionless creation.

"Why? Why does it always…when it comes down to the wire…for the most important goals…why do I always choke? Why…?" Merer said into his palm. Then his misery became to transform into rage.

"No…_NO…_I won't allow this. I'll go back…I'll redouble my efforts…I'll build something stronger, faster, nastier…I'll make something ten times as lethal as Starkiller…I'll show this world yet that…!"

"_NO."_

Merer looked up as Rokusho suddenly landed next to him, his cloak fluttering around his shoulders.

"Don't you see? Don't you understand what kind of path that is?"

"Rokusho?" Ikki said in confusion. _What's he doing here?_

"What?" Merer said.

"I can understand your grief. You were wronged, and it hurts. But what you are about to do will turn that grief into the worst thing you can imagine. It will turn you into those people that wronged you."

"WHAT? How dare you…!"

"Yes, I dare. I dare to say the truth. And do you know what of humanity's worst truths is? You become the things you hate. And you will, Merer, if you walk that path. You were once a kind, generous, and mature youth. You still are. But those qualities are beginning to be lost, replaced by the taint of David and Annika. Do you want that Merer? After all that's happened, do you want them to win by letting them turn you into them?"

"But I…I played fair…I…"

"You did. And the world will remember you for it. But David and Annika did not. They chose their path and they wound the fruits on it were rotten, All they have is rot, in the end. But you…you can do the opposite Merer. Why do you want to destroy…when you can create?"

Merer was silent.

"I am not your keeper. You life if yours to live. But I saw it when I met you, and I see it now. If you walk that path…slowly your mind will grow paranoid. Winning will become an obsession. And soon you won't be able to go on with just your skills. You will have to sabotage others, just to ensure your own victory. And that could just be the first stop of your descent, Merer Pimon. So I will ask you this: How long will it be before you go from wanting to win…to being unwilling to lose?"

"Because that's what David and Annika were." Ikki said as he walked up, helping a limping Metabee. "They didn't want to lose. They couldn't lose. So in the end, what kind of victory is that? It's not. Your parents understood that Merer…and that, as well as your supposed death, has weighed on their souls for eight years."

"But I…I…"

"Victory is not all things Merer. Just ask King Phyrus." Rokusho said.

Merer sighed and looked at his medal.

"Maybe…but they did such awful things…for such petty reasons…"

"And you did not. Why give them so much credit, Merer? Why give them so much power over you? One should remember the past…but not relive it every day. Look to the future Merer. Look at what you could be…and what they _will_ be. I know it's been said so many times it's virtually become cliché…but living well if the best revenge, Merer." Erika said. "You'll be getting the front page headlines. They'll be lucky to get in the tabloids."

Merer spun Starkiller's medal over his fingers as he thought. _Are they right? Have I accomplished anything?_

"They're right Master."

Everyone jerked as Starkiller's medal spoke. What made it shocking was that it wasn't in Merer's medawatch, which had fallen from his face and lay forgotten by his side.

"Wow. Did you just speak?" Metabee said, genuinely impressed.

"Of course. I am the greatest creation of Merer Pimon. He made sure I wasn't shackled by the requirement of a medawatch."

"You're more then that Starkiller…you're almost my child…my…own blood…and sweat…and tears…"

"And I say sweat no more Merer. Bleed no more. Cry no more. Let these old wounds heal and move on. I know you better then anyone Merer, and I know that you know that I'm right. That they're right."

Merer sighed again and looked at the group that had by now gathered around him.

"It figures…children's minds are so simple…and yet the answer lies in them."

"Who you calling simple buster?" Samantha snapped.

"No child. You misunderstand. Simplicity…is good. I've lived my whole life in complication. The gift, and curse, of my intellect. You saw all through it to the core. It figures…"

"Then you'll go home?" Ikki asked.

"That…Ikki…is not so simple. Perhaps it is not WILL I go home…but HOW can I?"

"But…"

"I did this to avenge my parent's pain. Yet in it I have caused them more pain…far more pain…oh god what have I become…" Merer agonized as he buried his face in his hands again.

"Ok look buddy. Maybe I'm not the smartest medabot ever…but let me sum it up to you: You were hurt by ugly, petty, worthless human beings. So let me put it this way: Do you want to give them a drop of dignity, let alone the ocean that devoting your whole life to proving them liars does? Or do you want to give the people whom you care about so much joy?" Metabee said.

Even with his face covered, it was clear Merer seemed to be pondering Metabee's words. He was motionless for a short time, as everyone looked at him in silence.

"You're right."

Merer took his hands away and stood up, heading over to Starkiller's empty body.

"I've been going about this all wrong. That damn screwjob knocked me askew and I was so mad about it I didn't even realize I was deviating from who I am. Nothing like a good hard knock on the head to get one straightened up again! And it sure beats a shrink!" Ha! Who would have though it! I spend eight years building the ultimate medabot and I get beaten by an archaic KBT medabot who pulls out an attack that I though was a myth! This is rich! The sheer absurdity of it…"

"Life's absurd." Starkiller noted.

"True. 'The race is not always to the swiftest, nor the battle to the strongest…but that's the way to bet'."

"So you'll go home?" Ikki asked.

"I…"

Merer's eyebrows suddenly arched. A second later Ikki realized why. Merer's medawatch, left near the ground on the ground, was suddenly beeping rapidly. Merer dashed over, carrying Starkiller as he scooped it up, looking at it.

"What is it?" Ikki asked. A second later Merer's eyes filled with shock and fear.

"MOVE! RUN!"

And a second after that, the missile exploded from the top of the treetops, blasting at the group. This wasn't a small medabot missile, this was one shot from a heavy-artillery helicopter.

Fortunately, the group was fast.

Most of them, as they scattered just before the missile came down on what would have been their midst, turning a slaughter into a bunch of thrown cursing kids (mostly Samantha) and Medabots (mostly Metabee).

Ikki shook his head to clear the cobwebs and got to his feet, coughing on the dust the missile had tossed up.

"Guys! Are you ok?"

"I'M GONNA KILL THAT…!" Samantha roared.

"Boss, calm down!" said Sloan and Spyke, roughly at the same time.

"That was so bogus dude." Rintaro complained.

"You ok Karen?" Koji asked, helping the dusty girl to her feet.

"Yes. Thanks Koji. (In the back of his head Ikki pondered if he should feel jealous, then concluded he could do it later) Are you ok Neutranurse?".

"I'm fine."

"Brass?"

"Over here Erika."

"That was definitely against the rules!" Mr. Referee complained as he pulled himself from the tree he had been tossed into.

"GIYIYIYIYIYYIIYIYIYIYI! Whoever did that is going to get a seeker missile up his medabutt!" Metabee cursed as he tried to drag his heavily damaged body up. He made it halfway up and fell. Ikki caught him.

"Wait? Where's Merer…MERER!" Ikki called, and then his heart sank as the dust cleared some more and he saw Merer's limp body about twenty feet away, lying on the ground like a discarded mannequin.

"No…" Ikki said in horror.

Then Merer jerked up, coughing and sneezing on the dust. Ikki felt his horror fade. _Thank…wait a minute, who shot that damn missile?_

"Pity. I thought that would thin the herd a bit."

Finally, Ikki noticed the large helicopter-esque vehicle flying above the trees. It floated silently, it's rotors barely making any noise. No wonder they hadn't seen or heard it coming before it had fired on them.

But he knew the short figure who was standing in the open door of the helicopter-esque vehicle all too way, as he looked down on them with a look of disappointment.

"Dr Meta-Evil."

"Well Met, Ikki Tenryou. I expected my surprise attack to get rid of a few of you at least. Well, this simply leaves more cleaning up to do. But in a way, that will be even more entertaining." Meta-Evil cackled, and hopped down to the ground. Despite being a jump of at least ten feet, the short antennaed doctor was not harmed.

"Well well, if it isn't the one whose butt we kicked when…" Koji began to taunt.

"BE SILENT, YOU PATHETIC WHELP!" Meta-Evil roared. The sheer volume of the noise coming out of such a small figure shocked Koji into silence.

"You! Well buddy, is it really you, or have you sent one your pathetic drones in your guise again?" Metabee asked.

"Oh it is me in the flesh you infuriating contraption. You get the honor of that this time…for what little time you have left!"

With a short meow, the cat that had controlled the Meta-Evil drone hopped down and onto Meta-Evil's shoulder. It spoke to him, but Ikki couldn't hear what the creature was saying, as he friends gathered around him.

"Not just yet my friend. I want to savior this a bit more."

"What do you want this time, you medamoron? You want my medal again? Well you ain't getting it!" Metabee snapped.

"No, Metabee. I do not want your medal. No. There is one thing I want…YOUR DESTRUCTION!"

"WHAT?"

"I had the world in my grasp! Victory was assured! And somehow, you CHILDREN took it all away! You destroyed Operation Beatlemania! You, by some miracle, crippled my greatest creation Giganko and stole from me the satisfaction of destroying the Medabot Corporation! YOU! A BUNCH OF CHILDREN! YOU DESTROYED MY DREAMS! IT SHOULD NOT BE!"

Metabee sweatdropped.

"Ikki, I think losing made him lose a few more things. Like his marbles."

"Yeah Metabee." Ikki said. He could sense it. Meta-Evil had always been a bit loopy, but it was clear he had totally snapped.

"I have suffered under this injustice for a long time, but no more! Now I will have my revenge! I will destroy you for your sins! You, and all those who aided you! You will be punished!" Meta-Evil ranted.

"And we'll help!" said a voice, and a second later Seaslug, Gillgirl, Shrimplips, and Squidguts appeared out of nowhere.

"What the…where did you losers come from?"

"It'd say it matters more where YOU'RE GOING! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Seaslug chortled.

"How can you side with him again? He betrayed you and left you dead in the water! How can you sell your souls to him again?"

"Simple: He offered us a lot of money!"

All the children and medabots facevaulted.

"Why am I not surprised…" Koji muttered.

"And not just that. I have granted them a little present. I like to call them…M-Bots."

"Wha…?"

And then suddenly the group was surrounded, as dozens apon dozens of robots suddenly seemed to appear out of nowhere (later, Ikki would rationalize they had probably hidden while he and Merer had Robattled), completely cutting off any escape routes.

"Yes, M-Bots. I always found the individual personalities in medabots to be aggravating, especially when they're as uppity as that scrap heap you own, Ikki Tenryou." Meta-Evil said.

"Bite your tongue!"

"So I designed these. Medabots without any desire but to serve! And all can be controlled…via a single medal! What they lack in design, they make up for in sheer numbers!"

"Yeah! They give us hives!" Seaslug chortled. His companions looked at him in confusion.

"Uh, I mean they have a hive mentality!"

The kids and good medabots facevaulted again.

"Well, let us do some introductions! They're not quite as good as Belzelgas, but I think you'll still find them to be dislike at first sight! I, Seaslug, give you my invincible troops: The Bezels!" Seaslug trumpeted. He gestured to a large group of medabots (er, M-Bots). They looked like smaller and less armoured Belzelgas. To make up for the lessened intimidation factor, there were a lot of them.

"I have the next generation of Noctobats, the N-Bas!" Gillgirl proclaimed. Above her floated her own army of smaller Noctobats, or N-Bas.

"Tanks are good. Tankors are good. But I have neither. I have something better: The Taks!" Shrimplips added. He had a legion of smaller, less armoured Tankors.

"And I like these guys because even I can remember the name. I may no longer have Gobanko, but I have all his cousins, the G.Bs!" Squidguts finished. His M-bots went along the same lines as his allies, looking like smaller and less armoured Gobankos. They also only had two weapons, compared to the six or seven Gobanko had carried.

"Dear lord, there must be hundreds of them." Erika said as she looked at the M-Bots that surrounded them.

"Big deal! Don't you know it's quality over quantity? I don't care if your goons have a bunch of lesser medabots that can all control using one medal, I'll kick all their medabutts!" Metabee proclaimed, and tried to stand up again. He failed. Meta-Evil smiled, a hideous grin only a madman could make.

"Oh you do not understand Metabee. These lesser are for your friends. For you and Ikki…I have something VERY special for you…AHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA!"

A large door opened in the bottom of the helicopter and a large metal crate fell out, landing in front of Meta-Evil with a massive THUD. It was huge, nearly twice as tall as Squidguts.

"I started my road to perfection with Robo-Emporer. I improved on it with Mega-Emporer and super-sized it with Giganko. But now…I have finally found the pinnacle of destruction! The peak of ruination! The crown jewel of catastrophe! The…!"

"WILL YOU JUST GET TO THE POINT!"

"SHUT UP!" Meta-Evil thundered, which would have been amusing if he hadn't looked so damn crazy. "This is my masterpiece…and I will enjoy watching it rip you limb from limb! I give you…"

The crate exploded, throwing metal shrapnel everywhere. The Rubberrobos yelped and tried to hide behind their M-Bots.

"…..OMNI-EMPEROR."

There was a pause.

"THAT'S IT? After all that buildup I was expecting some fancy new name like "Hell's Messiah" or "Blood Nocturne" and instead you just stick another synonym in front of Emperor? Dude you are so unoriginal! I mean…" Metabee said, before trailing off as Omni-Emperor was revealed.

The medabot was huge, even bigger then Mega-Emperor and painted a menacing black with jagged streaks of red running across its chest and face. The body trailed down into a tail, but this tail was more serpentine then insectile, as Mega-Emperor's had been. The left arm had a multi-missile launcher; the right arm had a five-pronged laser. The shoulders had gatling-style cannons on them. The head had long metal tentacle-esque "hair" that reminded Ikki of dreadlocks. The whole body was covered with sleek black armour that looked incredibly strong. Omni-Emperor had red glowing slits for eyes and a mouth full of metallic fangs. It hissed at them.

* * *

(Swinging Medal)

OMNI-EMPEROR

Medafighter: Dr. Meta-Evil

Type: Fusion: Devil/Serpent/Weapon

Specialty: Blitzkrieg Attack

* * *

"Whoa boy." Metabee whispered. Omni-Emperor hissed at them again. Meta-Evil laughed.

"Where are you taunts NOW, Metabee? Do you finally except that your fate is sealed?"

"Hey! This is absolutely against the rules! You cannot bring a…" Mr. Referee began as he walked up.

"SHUT UP! OMNI-EMPEROR, BLOW HIM TO PIECES!" Meta-Evil ordered. Omni Emperor raised his right arm. Mr. Referee yelled in surprise and fear and barely dodged the five blistering laser blasts. It struck the ground behind him and exploded, throwing him on his face. Mr. Referee looked up with angry eyes.

"YOU DARE ASSAULT THE REFEREE? I WILL…!"

"You'll what? Punish me with that medabot satellite you have? Omni-Emperor, let us show him what we think of his punishment! ARMAGEDDON CANNON!"

Omni-Emperor opened his mouth as black energy glowed deep within his gullet, and then he raised his head and fired a gigantic black energy blast off into the sky. It flew up and vanished.

There was a boom so faint it could barely be heard, and then a few seconds later a smoking pile of what had once been a medabot satellite came crashing down to the ground. Mr. Referee looked in horror at what had once been his punisher.

(Yeah, I know it would take a lot longer for the shot to fly up and the satellite to come down, but I couldn't have them standing around, so I defied the laws of physics, which aren't respected all that much in anime anyway)

"You see what I think of you and your punishment? NOW DIE!"

Omni-Emperor fired a barrage of missiles at Mr. Referee, who screamed and ran for his life. Meta-Evil laughed at the scene as the group of children looked on in horror.

"He's totally lost it. My god, we're gonna die." Erika whispered, as she finally realized the depths to which Meta-Evil's mind had descended.

"Now…for the child who dared get in my way. Now, Ikki Tenryou, you will learn the price of defying the one who is destined to rule the world! Rubberrobos, take care of his friends! I want that child all to myself!"

"No."

Meta-Evil's head jerked as Merer spoke for the first time. Ikki had totally forgotten about the scarred medafighter in the chaos that had just occurred, and Merer, being closer to the missile, had taken a worse impact and had taken longer to recover.

And he'd suffered something the kids had managed to avoid, as shrapnel had pelted him. His clothes were sliced up and a large cut oozed blood through his hands he held it against his scar tissue. He spat and glared at Meta-Evil.

"I know your kind. You think you're so superior, that you have great gifts that gives you the right to do whatever the hell you want. You think whatever comes out of your mouth is the absolute truth and law, and your deeds are god's gift to mankind. But you're not special, asshole. Oh no. You're nothing but a bully."

Merer reached down to where his medawatch lay at his feet and slowly strapped it on.

"I…HATE…BULLIES…"

The watch activated as Merer pressed a button.

"TRANSPORT TWO FULL REPAIR CHIPS!" Merer ordered. He held out his other hand as a beam of white light shot at it, and down small computer chips appeared in his palm.

"Ikki, catch!" Merer said as he tossed one at Ikki. Ikki caught it..

"What's this?"

"There's a slot in the back of Metabee's neck! Slide the chip in!" Merer said as he leaned down and inserted the second chip into Starkiller.

"Ok…here we go…" Ikki said.

"Who are you?" Meta-Evil asked.

"The name's Merer Pimon, but you can call me Flute, because I'm going to play your swam song."

"I have no quarrel with you!"

"We do! He…" Seaslug began.

"SILENCE!" Meta-Evil roared at his subordinate. Seaslug cowered again.

"Oh yes you do. You're a lunatic who wants to hurt innocent children. That's all I need."

"DO YOU WANT TO DIE?"

"No, but why worry about that? It won't be happening." Merer shot back.

"WHOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! GIYIYIYIYIYIYIYIYIYIYIYIYIYIYIYIYIYIYIYIYIYIYIYI!" Metabee hollered as he suddenly began doing a mad dance.

"Merer! What the heck is this chip doing?"

"You know how medabots have a nanotechnology system within them that functions as their version of a healing ability? That chip just shot it into extreme overdrive!"

"YASALMOUDAKOLAHMOWOSSSSSSSSSS!" Metabee babbled as he continued to dance.

"It's not pleasant with conscious medabots, but it should be finishing right about…now."

Metabee stopped his mad dance, and the chip ejected. Ikki's eyes widened. Metabee's rapid motion had masked the effect of the chip: his body was completely repaired. There wasn't even one scratch.

"WHOA! I didn't think it was possible, but I feel even better then I look! Ikki, get me back my original arm!" Metabee said.

"You got it!" Ikki said as he swapped the Silversword medapart with Metabee's usual arm.

Starkiller's body had been similarly repaired, and Merer stood the body up as he flipped the medal in his hand.

"Ready for another war Starkiller?"

"Nothing like a good war to make heroes of us all."

"How true. GO STARKILLER!" Merer yelled as he slammed the medal back into place. Starkiller jerked and then stood up, pulling out her Nova Sword and igniting it.

"Ok Meta-Evil, let's get…"

"Transport Peppercat!"

Ikki's eyes widened as he looked over as Samantha transported her medabot.

"Samantha?"

"He just threatened to kill me as well Ikki. Think I'm taking that lying down?"

"Transport Totalizer!" Sloan ordered. His medabot appeared.

"Transport Cyandog!" Spyke added. A second later the Screws' trio was complete.

"C'mon Kanteroth! Let's teach this nutball some manners!" Rintaro said as he called his KBT-Type medabot.

"Sumilidon, it's time to fight!" Koji said as he called his medabot.

"Neutranurse, aid them!" Karin said.

"Brass, show them what you've got!" Erika said.

Merer strolled over to the group and stood beside Ikki.

"You know Ikki, whatever feelings you and your friends may have over the Robattles I've fought the past couple of days…well, one last quote. "The enemy of my enemy…'"

"Is my friend." Ikki finished. "Well Meta-Evil? Still feel like this will be a cakewalk?"

"You foolish children. This changes nothing. Your medabots are no match for my M-Bots and the overwhelming power of Omni-Emperor! Have you forgotten whom you have angered? LET ME REMIND YOU! OMNI-EMPEROR!"

Omni-Emperor thrust back his head and roared to the sky, and suddenly the ground began to shake.

"What the heck? Is it an earthquake?" Ikki asked.

"No. That's his damn medabot powering up!" Merer cursed, as small pieces of rock began to float up from around Omni-Emperor.

"No way! What kind of power source could cause this kind of effect?"

"One that's highly illegal and only a madman would dare use in a medabot…but I'd say that's beside the point." Merer said grimly.

"AHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Meta-Evil laughed. "YOU CANNOT STAND BEFORE ME! I SHALL MOW YOU DOWN LIKE GRAIN BEFORE A SCYTHE!"

"You guys take care of those would-be Medabots the Rubberdodos have. I'll take down this junk heap." Merer said.

"Not alone you won't!" Ikki said.

"Hell yeah! Let's get medabusy!" Metabee added.

"And I'll fight too!"

The sound of a cloak being tossed off filled the air a second before Rokusho landed next to Metabee and Starkiller.

"Rokusho? Where did you go?" Metabee asked.

"I was checking on Mr. Referee! He's fine. Now we can deal with the task at hand." Rokusho said, his eyes hard.

"Rokusho as well? How convenient! I can destroy you all in one fell swoop!" Dr. Meta-Evil cackled.

"You poor twisted soul…how much pain have your delusions caused others? You've taken so much, including the life I had with Dr. Hushi! I won't forgive you!" Rokusho declared.

"Let's get the medabastard." Metabee added.

"You ready guys?" Merer asked.

"YEAH!" the children chorused, as their medabots lined up.

"THEN, IT'S AGREED!" Mr. Referee said as he popped up from behind the rock he was hiding behind. 'I HEREBY…"

"SHUT UP!" Dr. Meta-Evil screamed, as Omni-Emperor fired a barrage of missiles at Mr. Referee. He yelled and scrambled back behind the rock as they exploded all around him. "OH, FORGET THE RULES! NO HOLDS BARRED! DO WHATEVER YOU HAVE TO, JUST WIN!"

"I'll take that as a cue! CHARGE!" Seaslug bellowed, and the hordes of M-Bots surged forward.

"Pick on the young, you're pathetic. Pick on the old, you're a coward. Pick on the weak, you're ever weaker. Pick on us…" Merer muttered, and looked up to watch the legions of robots charging at him.

"YOU'RE HISTORY!"

"LET'S MAKE HISTORY!" Ikki said.

"YEAH!"

The medabots surged forward as they snapped out their weapons, as the age old battle between good and evil began once again.

Sun Tzu would have been proud.

Wow! What a twist! Metabee successfully defeats Starkiller, only to have a now utterly insane Dr. Meta-Evil return with a desire for blood! Who will win this medawar? Can our heroes find the skill, the drive, the ability, and the power to defeat the hideous power of Omni-Emperor? How badly will Cyandog get trashed? How long before I can get a new satellite? Find out in

Chapter 9: The Art of War

More Medabots, More Power!


	9. The Art of War

Chapter 9: The Art of War

When the fist came at Peppercat, she was sure she was finished.

She had fought a Belzelga before, when she and Sumilidon had raided Dr. Meta-Evil's underground lair to save Metabee. They were a one-trick pony, but it was one hell of a trick: their sheer striking power had made her eyes cross a second before it nearly knocked them out of her head. And considering the fact that the Bezels were related to them, it seemed like history was repeating itself. But unlike last time, Rokusho would not save her.

Maybe nothing could, as the fist came forth and struck…

Peppercat couldn't believe it. True, it had hurt, but the pain was so much less then she had expected. It barely even pushed her back.

"………Ok, MY TURN!" Peppercat yelled as she struck back, slamming her claw into the M-Bot and giving it a massive shock.

The thing literally fell apart, the soulless construct that Dr. Meta-Evil had made proving to be little more then a hollow shell.

"Metabee was right: a medal does make all the difference! Quality over quantity!"

"Don't be so sure."

Three more Bezels pounced on her. Peppercat yelped and fought back as they rained blows on her. She managed to beat them off her and stand, but in the time she had done that their number had doubled. Her eyes widened.

"Maybe I was a bit too hasty in my previous judgment."

The M-Bots charged. Peppercat leapt into the air with a meow and checkerboard-jumped across their heads, before landing on another one and giving it a massive dose of electricity. As it fell apart, four more jumped her.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHA! You will see how the many outweigh the few!" Seaslug laughed.

"Hold on Peppercat!" Totalizer said as he tried to help his fellow medabot. He grabbed one M-Bot in each hand and smashed them together before hurling their wrecked bodies into more of their comrades. No sooner had he done that then another dozen attacked him, and he yelled as he vanished amongst the group of M-Bots.

"This is not good!" Sloan said.

"Tell me about it!" Samantha cursed, as Peppercat tried to fend off the rain of blows that seemed to be coming from everywhere. While the damage was piddling, it was constant, and Samantha knew eventually it would add up.

"SPYKE! Get your worthless medabot over there and provide aid!"

"I can't! He's pinned down with Kanteroth!" Spyke said. Indeed, the hard luck dog medabot and the beetle medabot were trapped behind a rock as the Taks rained bullets and small lasers down on it, slowly chipping it away. Kanteroth and Cyandog would occasionally peak out and fire off some shots, taking down a Tak (usually Kanteroth).  But two more would take its place.

"Dude, this is so bogus! I can't believe you'd use these wimpazoid tactics!" Rintaro yelled at Shrimplips.

"I play to win! Doesn't matter how it happens! AHEHEHEHEHHEHEH!"

"Damn! Kanteroth, make a run for it and regroup!"

"You got it!" Kanteroth yelled as he broke cover, firing at the Taks. The ground exploded around him as he ducked behind a tree. He leaned out and fired some more and then ran again as the sheer mass of firepower reduced the tree to toothpicks.

"Keep firing! That shield has to give out eventually!" Gillgirl ordered as her N-Bas fired round after round of small missiles out of their mouths at where Neutranurse was standing, keeping her shield between the projectiles and her medafighter. But it was starting to strain her.

"Hey! Why don't you pick on someone who can fight back!" Erika yelled. 'Brass, fire!"

"Machine cannon!" Brass said as she fired. She took out two N-Bas, but the rest of the M-Bots just flew out of range.

"Hey, don't crash our party! N-Bas, Mouth Missiles!" Gillgirl ordered. Erika and Brass ran for it as another barrage of missiles came down, exploding around them. But they were undeterred, immediately shooting back at the massed robots.

"Can I crash this party too?" Kanteroth said as he opened fire on the N-Bas flanks. His cannons were more powerful then Brass', but less precise, which caused two misses for every N-Ba he shot down. Then the Tak's began firing on his rear. He growled and turned, firing off a round of missiles. While the Tak's got an up close and personal meeting with them, he resumed firing on the N-Bas, until a barrage of missiles threw him backwards.

"Kanteroth!" Rintaro cried.

"I'm not done yet!"

Sumilidon blocked the small club the G.B swung at him and slashed the M-Bot, nearly chopping it in half. He didn't get to celebrate his victory as three more attacked him with their blade-staffs. He flipped backwards and then pushed off his arms, spinning up and over them in a whirl of Flexor sword. As he landed the G.B's fell apart.

Another attacked him. He blocked the clumsy slash and smashed the M-Bot's head off with his Hammer Fist. Then he was the one getting hammered as half a dozen G.B's jumped him from behind, beating on him with their clubs. He disarmed one and grabbed the bladestaff, swinging it in a wide arc and scattering his attackers. He tossed the bladestaff through another one for good measure.

"Doh! Well, I have more where those came from!" Squidguts said, and he proved prophetic as a new group attacked Sumilidon. Sumilidon blocked, parried, and slashed with all his might, trying to ward off the numbers. He was not very successful at it.

"Sumilidon!" Koji said. This was going very badly, for all of his friends and acquaintances. There were just too many enemies!

It wasn't going much better for the trio of Metabee, Starkiller, and Rokusho, and they stared down the demonic countenance of Omni-Emperor, with Meta-Evil's ever-present cackling in the background.

"I'll take point! Cover me!" Rokusho said as he charged.

"Covering!" Starkiller said as she armed her Nova Cannon and opened fire with Metabee. The shots streaked and blasted around Omni-Emperor, but he barely seemed to notice.

"CHANBARA SWORD!" Rokusho yelled as he leapt at Omni-Emperor.

And was smashed away, almost casually, as Omni-Emperor suddenly brought one arm back and caught Rokusho with it mid-air. He flew back with a cry, landing near Metabee and Starkiller.

"Rokusho!"

"What speed!" Merer said. "I thought it was impossible to get such a huge medabot to move so fast."

"Yeah, well, that just means he's going down quicker!" Metabee said. "Missile launch!"

Nothing came out,

"Damn! I forgot I was out of missiles! Ikki, I need a reloader!"

"I'm on it!" Ikki said as he called the medapart.

"No point standing around! If one sword didn't work why don't we try two!?!" Starkiller said as she pulled out her Nova Sword. "Ready to try again Rokusho?"

"Yes!"

"LET'S GO!" Starkiller yelled as she and Rokusho charged, as Metabee provided cover fire again.

"Please! Omni-Emperor, show them just how pitiful they are!" Meta-Evil said. Omni-Emperor growled and his metal hair suddenly lifted up and coiled above his head like snakes, spreading out. Merer heard a series of whirring noises and his eyes widened.

"OH CRAP! THAT'S NOT JUST FOR SHOW! IT'S ANOTHER WEAPONS SYSTEM!"

And then Omni-Emperor opened fire, blasting hundreds of laser shots at the charging medabots. They stopped their assault and split up, running for cover. There was more whirring, and small metal arrows and splats of corrosive acid joined the laser shots.

"Holy moly!" Metabee said as he watched the sheer display of firepower. He barely noticed Ikki sending the reloader into his head.

More whirring, and then the final set of weapons in the strands of Omni-Emperor's hair began firing, razor-sharp metal buzz saws. Metabee yelped and dove for cover. Starkiller slashed the blades out of mid-air and fired off another Nova Cannon shot. It hit, but it didn't seem to do anything.

The barrage suddenly stopped, and Omni-Emperor hissed as most of his stands of metal hair drooped down.

"He's out of ammo! Attack!" Merer said.

"Missile launch!" Metabee yelled as he fired off his reloaded rockets. But the cannons on Omni-Emperor's shoulder aimed and shot them out of the sky.

"Worthless! Omni-Emperor, fill them with so many holes they'll be the envy of Swiss cheese makers!"

Omni-Emperor's hair swung up again as additional machine cannons armed, and then he raised his arms as four more additional gatling blasters emerged out of his incredibly bulky gauntlets he had on his forearms.

"Dammit! How many guns does that thing…ARRRGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!" Metabee yelled as Omni-Emperor filled the air with bullets, firing his arm, shoulder, and hair cannons all at the same time.

"Starkiller, Speed Mode!"

"Right!" Starkiller said as she switched and blasted at Omni-Emperor, dodging around the hails of bullets. "You can't hit me with those ancient toys!"

"Ok, how about this?" Meta-Evil cackled, and the side of Omni-Emperor's head popped open and extracted a small laser cannon that fired off a small but powerful and accurate shot. Starkiller screamed as she was caught in the chest and throw backwards. "Nothing escapes the power of my Omni-Targeter!"

"Starkiller, you ok?" Metabee said as he ran over.

"Yeah! I'm just pissed off!" Starkiller said as she switched back to Warrior mode.

"Starkiller, I think that cannon itself is the Omni-Targeter. The rest of his weapons aren't quite as accurate." Merer said.

"They're accurate enough!" Meta-Evil said as Omni-Emperor aimed his five pronged laser cannon at the two, the machine guns having withdrawn to reload.

"YIPE! Starkiller, get your armour mode out!" Metabee said.

"WHAT armour mode? You trashed it, remember?"

"Oh bugger." Metabee said as Omni-Emperor's cannon glowed.

"CHANBARA SWORD!"

Omni-Emperor bellowed in sudden pain as Rokusho finally made his move, leaping out of a nearby tree and slashing Omni-Emperor with all his might. Rokusho hit the ground and leapt away as Omni-Emperor's shoulder cannons fired at him.

And leapt right into the hideous medabot's lashing tail, which sent him flying back with a cry.

"Rokusho! Well, if you want to get up close and personal…let me invite you to hell!"

Omni-Emperor's hair rose up and several strands joined together, fusing into a new weapon.

A flamethrower, one that belched out a giant slash of fire, enveloping the ground where Rokusho had just been lying. The flamethrower swung around, setting nearby trees on fire as it tried to fry the retreating medabot.

"AHAHAHAHAHHAHA! BURN IT ALL DOWN! BURN! BURN! BURN!" Meta-Evil laughed.

"Laser cannon!"

Shots ricocheted along Omni-Emperor's massive frame. Annoyed, he turned, ignoring all the shots that pounded into his body as he raised his left arm and fired off a barrage of missiles at Metabee. Metabee leapt for cover, continuing to fire. The other side of Omni-Emperor's head slide open and another laser cannon emerged, firing off several laser blasts that Metabee dodged before the Omni-Targeter emerged from the other side of his head and blew Metabee off his feet.

"ARGH!"

"Metabee!" Ikki cried.

"Chanbara/Nova Sword!" Rokusho and Starkiller yelled as they jumped Omni-Emperor from behind, slashing furiously at him.

"Insects! You go squish now!"

Rokusho ducked under Omni-Emperor's swinging arm and stabbed him in the "stomach" as Starkiller dodged his slashing tail. She fired off another Nova Cannon shot into his flank, putting so much power behind it that it threw her backwards.

"I don't get it! His armour's immensely strong but it's not invulnerable! We should have done some damage, but I don't see a scratch!" Merer cursed. "How's Metabee?"

"Back and ready for more! YEAH-YEAH!" Metabee yelled as he fired off more missiles.

Omni-Emperor blew them out of the sky and then slammed Rokusho between his massive arms, lifting him up and pitching him into Metabee, sending the two medabots tumbling down in a heap.

"DESTROY THEM! ARMAGEDDON CANNON!" Meta-Evil ordered. Omni-Emperor opened his fanged mouth as dark energy began to gather within.

"Oh no!" Ikki said.

And then Starkiller came down from her leap, slamming her feet onto Omni-Emperor's head and interrupting the blast, which blew out from between his teeth and "ears" as Starkiller used the boost to leap up again, drawing her blade.

"NOVA SWORD!" she yelled as she brought the blade down with all her might.

It was true, coming down on Omni-Emperor's right shoulder joint and severing the arm clean. Omni-Emperor wailed in pain as his limb fell to the ground, as Starkiller leapt away and landed next to Metabee and Rokusho.

"Nice move!" Metabee commented.

"I was inspired by you." Starkiller replied. Metabee gave her a cross look.

"Good guys! You crippled him!" Ikki said.

"Crippled him? I think not, Ikki Tenryou!"

"What? What are you rambling about now?" Merer said.

"Just watch, music man! Watch a true act of genius at work!" Meta-Evil cackled.

"What the hell is…did his arm just move?" Metabee said, unable to hide the faint tinge of fear in his voice.

"It didn't "just move". It IS moving!" Merer said in disbelief, as the arm seemed to gain a life of it's own and pull itself back to Omni-Emperor and up the side of the medabot. "What the hell?"

"I will allow you the answer! While all medabots have nanotechnology, only my Omni-Emperor has one that is so powerful it allows the nigh-instantaneous healing of all injury…INCLUDING THE LOSS OF A LIMB!"

"No way!" Ikki said in horror as Omni-Emperor's arm fitted back into the slot. A second later Omni-Emperor was moving it like it had never been damaged. With another shock, Ikki realized the damage caused by the misfired Armageddon cannon was almost gone too.

"That's why we couldn't see any damage. That damn nanotechnology was fixing it even as it was attacking us!"

"You see what you face? Even if you can overcome the peerless weapon systems and armour that I have given Omni-Emperor, any damage you do will cease to exist! He is a GOD AMONG MEDABOTS!" Meta-Evil crowed.

"More like a devil." Metabee muttered.

"Now, my not so esteemed foes…let me show you the other greatest weapon this medabot has! Omni-Emperor, OBLIVION BLASTER!"

_Ah crap! Not another one!_ Metabee thought as Omni-Emperor's hair rose up and began joining together. This time, all the strands merged into one big device, a giant cannon that looked like a weapon a demon would use.

"Oh dear. RUN!!!!!!" Merer ordered.

The three medabots split up and ran for it.

"OBLIVION BLASTER…FIRE!"

A red beam sprang forth from the cannon and zapped across the battlefield in a quick and smooth motion.

It missed all three of them.

"What? Huh, that was…"Metabee said.

Then the ground erupted, as a massive explosion issued forth from all along the line the laser had drawn across the battlefield. The three medabots were caught in the area effect and tossed away like rag dolls, their cries being drowned out by Meta-Evil's insane laughter.

"It's going bad for them!" Erika said as she saw the massive explosion rip through the battlefield, the shock wave even destroying the closest M-Bots.

"It's going bad for us too!" Koji said, as Sumilidon fought like a madman to keep from being overwhelmed by M-Bots. Totalizer had long since vanished under a tide of Bezels, a few tossed M-Bots the only indication he was still there. But his strength was fading.

Peppercat had retreated up a tree and was zapping any Bezels that tried to climb up. But they were catching on, and were now pounding on the tree trunk. Once the tree fell, so would Peppercat…right into the teeming masses below her. And this time, she wouldn't emerge. Not in one piece.

Kanteroth was pinned down again by a combined force of Taks and N-Bas. Another group of N-Bas was chasing Cyandog, who was having as much luck hitting them as he would yanking a camel through a keyhole.

The children were getting a sick feeling this would be the last sight they would ever see. The M-Bots would rip their best friends to pieces, and then they would suffer the same fate.

But they fought on, with the bravery of the young and the hope of the innocent.

"Metabee? Are you all right?"

"Ow. Considering how much that hurt indirectly I'd sure hate to feel it directly." Metabee said as he pulled his battered body from beneath some rubble. Ikki checked his watch and was somewhat surprised when the highest damage rating was only 40 percent. He'd expected it to be twice that.

"Starkiller?"

"Ow. I landed on my keys."

Merer smirked.

"You don't have keys."

"Well, we need a key to this problem."

A M-Bot suddenly crashed down near Merer. He looked over to where his allies were fighting. His brow creased. They weren't doing well either. No, actually, that was an understatement. 

"Fine. You want to play this way? Very well. I can play any game!" Merer said as he brought up his medawatch. "TRANSPORT FIVE ADRENALYN CHIPS!"

"Wha?" Ikki said as a light glowed in Merer's hand and then split off into five directions. Samantha, Sloan, Spyke, Rintaro, and Koji reacted with surprise as a chip materialized in their hands.

"Hey? What's this?" Samantha asked.

"Yeah! What gives dude?" Rintaro added.

"You know that chip I gave Ikki? This one works on a similar level! It's illegal to use in normal robattles, but this isn't one! It's life or death!"

"Illegal?  But…" Koji said.

"Koji, you can follow the law, or you can live! Two choices! Pick one!" Merer said.

"Peppercat, come here!" Samantha said. The cat medabot obeyed, leaping out of the tree and to Samantha. Totalizer managed to toss off his attackers long enough to get to Sloan. Cyandog was still running, so he just ran to Spyke. Kanteroth and Sumilidon pulled similar escapes to get to their medafighters.

"Ok. But this is the only time…" Koji said as he snapped the Adrenalyn chip into the back of Sumilidon's neck.

"What does that do?" Ikki asked.

"The repair chip I used stimulated your nanotechnology in a certain way: it made them repair at ultra-high speeds. This one stimulates the medabot system a little differently…"

A second after the chip slid home and activated, Peppercat's head snapped up as her eyes glowed bright gold.

"This one acts like your medabot was hopped up on steroids, angel dust, speed, and amphetamines…ALL AT THE SAME TIME."

"MREOWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Peppercat leapt up and came down on a Bezel so hard the shockwave smashed the surrounding M-Bots to pieces. Her landing M-Bot was reduced to little more then dust. She leapt out and sent a massive surge of electricity into the closest group of M-Bots, blowing them into tiny pieces.

"Whoa!" Samantha said.

"GANGWAY!!!!!!!" Totalizer bellowed as he charged through the M-Bots, his speed greatly increased and his power off the charts, as he ran through and over every single M-Bot who got in his way. A group of Taks split off and began to fire, but Totalizer just aimed and fired off a laser three times his normal size, reducing them to little more then ash.

"NO! NO!!!!!!!! WE WERE WINNING!" Seaslug wailed as Peppercat went from being vanquished to vicious, ripping apart his army with more jolts then a power plant could produce.

"Cyandog, blow em away!"

"TAKE THIS!!!!!!!!!" Cyandog yelled, as he raised his arms and fired into the group of N-Bas.

And missed every one. Spyke groaned.

"Spyke! Don't have Cyandog aim at anything directly! Just fire in the general direction!" Merer yelled.

"Why?"

"JUST DO IT!"

"Ok…Cyandog, do as he says!"

"I-AHHHHHHHHHH!' Cyandog yelled as the N-Bas struck back with a barrage of missiles. He flew backwards, his cannons firing.

And it worked. The Adrenalyn chip greatly enhanced the cannon's power, and Cyandog didn't have to aim at anything: the area effect took care of it. N-Bas well from the sky like rain.

"TAKE THIS! AND THIS! AND HAVE SOME OF THIS! YOU TOO!" Kanteroth bellowed as he shot and smashed his way through a group of Taks and G.B's.

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!" Shrimplips said as his M-bots were taken apart.

"I'LL SHOW YOU HOW TO USE A SWORD!" Sumilidon yelled as he took apart half a dozen G.B's with one slash and smashed four more with the follow up kick. A few more slashes and fifteen more G.B's were in pieces. There were still more, lots more, but they suddenly withdrew. Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Koji looked around to see why and found it: A large group of Taks and N-Bas were taking up aim at Sumilidon.

"Sumilidon!"

"I see them! SHADOW SWORD!" Sumilidon yelled as he unleashed his ultimate attack on his would-be ambushers. A blur of motion, and then they all fell apart.

"What is THIS?" Dr. Meta-Evil said as he watched his flunkies suddenly go from trashing to being trashed. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING? DESTROY THEM!"  
"We're trying!" Seaslug cursed.

Peppercat's eyes suddenly widened as she found herself facing about a hundred M-Bots, as Seaslug, Shrimplips, and Squidguts pooled some of their remaining armies to attack her. Another large group of Taks and G.B's were assaulting Totalizer. Even with their greatly enhanced power, their numbers were daunting, and they were still aching from their previous battle.

"Boss, got any ideas?"

"Yeah. Tear em…" Samantha's voice trailed off as her eyes strayed onto the nearby lake. "No wait! Sloan!"

"Yeah Boss?"

"Have Totalizer jump into the water!"  
"What?"

"Just do it!"

"You heard the lady Totalizer!"

"With pleasure! CANNONBALL!" Totalizer bellowed as he leapt up with all the new strength his legs had and plunged into the water. His weight and height caused a massive tidal wave of water to splash up and over a good amount of the people and M-Bots.

"Ha! You thought water was going to stop them? Dream on!" Seaslug taunted. Samantha smirked.

"No, but here's a math lesson for you. Water + Electricity=DEAD M-BOTS!"

And Peppercat leapt up and brought one of her electrified claws down on the now moist ground. The electricity jolted through the moisture and zapped into the soaked M-Bots. The Rubberrobos wailed as their army was destroyed, their systems frying and then falling apart.

"No one messes with the Screws!" Cyandog said as he blasted the other large group of M-bots that were attacking him and Kanteroth. The forces were rapidly being chipped apart.

"And no one messes with me either!" Kanteroth yelled. He motioned Cyandog aside and then fired off his enhanced missiles right into the heart of the group. The massive explosion took out the rest of them.

"No. My army…" Seaslug agonized.

"Yeah, good thing you have a girl here! N-Bas! Fly out of range and fire apon those medabots!" Gillgirl ordered. Her flying M-Bots had managed to escape the destruction that her companion's land-based robots had suffered. Her remaining M-Bots flew up.

"Oh dear. Sumilidon!" Koji ordered.

"Right! Kanteroth, Cyandog, give me a boost!" Sumilidon yelled as he ran at the two.

"N-Bas, prepare Mouth Missiles!" Gillgirl ordered.

"ALLY-OOP!" Cyandog and Kanteroth said as Sumilidon put his foot on their joined hands and they tossed him up. The warrior medabot flew up amongst the M-Bots as they readied themselves.

"What?" Gillgirl said.

"DISRUPTER!" Sumilidon yelled as he turned it on,

"OH NO! STOP!" Gillgirl said.

Too late, as the N-Bas fired off their missiles. Which promptly blew up in their faces. Sumilidon landed gracefully and posed as the last dregs of the Rubberrobo's M-Bot army came crashing down around him.

"Ah man…not again…" Seaslug groaned.

"Whoa." Sumilidon said as the Adrenalyn chip popped out of his next. It landed on the ground, sizzling.

"The chips ejected themselves. Any longer at that level of power and they would have started damaging their hosts. Although I would say I think they did their job, eh?" Merer said.

And then Meta-Evil, who had ceased his attack on his targets due to the sudden turn-around of his flunkies' battle, started screaming.

"YOU BRAIN-DEAD IDIOTS! I GIVE YOU POWER BEYOND ALL ABILITY TO COUNTER AND YOU STILL FAIL ME!?!??!?!? YOU WORTHLESS PIECES OF SCUM! YOU SHOULD PRAY THAT AFTER I KILL THESE CHILDREN THAT I DON'T DECIDE TO KILL YOU TOO!!!!!!!"

"But we…I…hey, wait a minute! Who said anything about killing them?" Seaslug said.

"WHAT? ARE YOU QUESTIONING ME!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!"

"Hey buddy, we agreed to help you take care of the kids, and to help take over the world, but cold-blooded murder is just not what we do!" Seaslug said, and his voice indicated that despite his other "evil" desires, he meant what he was saying.

"YOU PATHETIC TROGLODYTES! I MADE YOU! I MADE THE RUBBERROBOS! YOU WILL DO WHAT I SAY!"

"Not when it comes to killing kids." Gillgirl said.

"THAT DOES IT! I CHANGED MY MIND! I WON'T KILL YOU AFTER, I'LL KILL YOU NOW! OMNI-EMPEROR!!!!!!

Omni-Emperor aimed his missile launcher at the Rubberrobos, and their eyes went wide.

"No! You wouldn't!"

"I will destroy anyone who defies me! Utterly! KILL THEM!"

"I DON'T THINK SO!"

And Starkiller came down from the sky, slashing her sword out across the missile launcher. It jerked and misfired, barely missing the stunned Rubberrobos. From the heat of the missile's explosion, it was clear Meta-Evil had meant business.

"THAT DOES IT! You're on your own, you lunatic! WE QUIT! RUN AWAY!" Seaslug yelled, and he and his friends ran off, disappearing over the horizon.

"YOU FOOLS! MY NEW WORLD ORDER WILL HANG YOU ON…on…" Meta-Evil trailed off as a realization went through the cloud of madness in his brain.

"And so you're alone." Merer said, as Starkiller leapt to his side, as the remaining medafighters joined him and Ikki. Erika and Brass, along with Karen and Neutranurse, brought up the rear, deciding to leave this next battle to the more experienced combat medabots.

"They were nothing more then rickety puppets." Koji said disdainfully, kicking a G.B head out of his way.

"Ok nutcase! You got two options! Surrender, or face the Screws and co!" Samantha said. Merer glanced wryly at her and she smiled embarrassingly.

Meta-Evil chuckled.

"Stupid kids. I don't need those idiots. Omni-Emperor can destroy all of you all by himself!"

Omni-Emperor hefted his nearly repaired missile launcher and hissed, as his hair rose up, arming more weapons.

"GET HIM!"

The medabots charged.

"We will see who gets who! Omni-Emperor, prepare!"

Omni-Emperor hissed again as his hair slid into various new weapons systems. Merer got an uneasy feeling in his gut, even as Starkiller and her allies bore down on the massive robot.

Then the "hair" strands pointed right up into the air, even as Omni-Emperor slammed his large weapon gauntlets together, locking them.

"WAIT! FALL BACK!" Merer yelled.

"Blitzkrieg Attack!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Meta-Evil bellowed.

And suddenly sections on Omni-Emperor's chest, sides, and tail snapped open. Merer got a glimpse of multiple new missile launchers before they fired. Dozens apon dozens of explosive devices blasted from Omni-Emperor's body, flying up and at the attacking medabots.

Ikki's eyes went as wide as saucers.

"RUN!"

And then everything was exploding, the air suddenly filled with percussion blasts, screaming medabots, and Meta-Evil's mad laughter. Merer felt himself being tossed back before he landed on his rear, throwing up his arms to protect his face, wishing he hadn't taken off his cloak.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! FOOLS! NO ONE CAN DEFEAT ME!" Meta-Evil laughed somewhere in the smoke.

"Starkiller? You ok?" Merer asked his watch.

"I think so. I heeded your warning, although I don't know how well the others did." Starkiller said as she rose to her feet, clutching her sword.

The smoke cleared.

Most of the faster medabots had gotten far away enough to avoid the blasts, and the others had taken refuge behind a sudden sanctuary: Neutranurse and her shield. Merer glanced over to where Karen was, and she gave him a thumbs up. He smiled and returned it.

"What? Why aren't you all dead?' Meta-Evil said, sounding genuinely confused.

"It's not in our contracts." Merer deadpanned. "HE'S DRAINED! GET HIM!"

The medabots attacked on force once again. Omni-Emperor, growling, suddenly found himself beset by Peppercat, Sumilidon, Starkiller and Rokusho as the others fired of him from afar. Bellowing, more in anger then pain, he tossed Peppercat and Rokusho aside with one sweep of his huge arm and then whacked Sumilidon into a tree with his tail. Starkiller dodged a follow up swipe and ate a point-blank Omni-Targeter shot which was lessened only somewhat by her sword. He fired another barrage of missiles at the group shooting at him and they scattered. 

"MEOW!" Peppercat yelled as she jumped back on the offensive, using her greater speed to dodge Omni-Emperor's laser blast and following up shoulder machine guns. She leapt on his head and gave it every volt she could muster. Omni-Emperor bellowed in pain.

"Yeah! Wait ta go boss!" Spyke said.

His enthusiasm quickly died as Omni-Emperor swiped Peppercat off his head with his hair and smashed her in mid-air with one of his arms. Peppercat wailed as she flew through the air and hit the ground hard, chunks of her body breaking off.

Even as his nanobots repaired the damage Peppercat had done to his head, Omni-Emperor raised his missile arm and aimed.

"PEPPERCAT!" Samantha said in horror.

"Boss! Oh no!" Spyke said. "What can I do? Wait, what would Merer do? He always a plan! But only because he's so smart! I'm stupid! But I have to help boss! C'mon brain, I don't ask much of you, but THINK! THINK THINK THINK!"

And amazingly, something came to him.

"My god, I think I have a good idea." Spyke said. "Cyandog!"

"What?"

"Listen carefully!" Spyke said, and snapped off a quick order. For once, Meta-Evil's innate cruelty seemed to work in their favor, as Omni-Emperor was taking his sweet time lining up a kill shot, just to savor Peppercat's agony.

"Gotcha!" Cyandog said, and ran at Totalizer.

"Sloan!"

"What?"

"Let Cyandog jump on Totalizer's shoulders, and when I say so, toss him in the air!"

"What? Spyke is you want to run away there are easier…"

"JUST DO IT!" Spyke yelled, finding a voice of authority he never knew existed within him.

"Ok! Totalizer, do what he says!" Sloan ordered.

"You got it!" Totalizer said as Cyandog hopped on Totalizer's shoulders.

"NOW CHARGE!"

"YAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Totalizer and Cyandog yelled as they charged at Omni-Emperor. Cyandog fired some shots: they missed, but they got Omni-Emperor's attention.

"NOW!" Spyke ordered.

"Up and at 'em!" Totalizer said as he grabbed Cyandog and tossed the Medabot into the air. "And since I'm not just here to play tiddlywinks, LASER!" Totalizer said as he fired his beam. It hit Omni-Emperor in the side, but he barely seemed to notice as he spun and aimed his missile arm at Totalizer.

"OH NO! TOTALIZER!" Sloan yelled.

Too late, as Totalizer became the recipient of the barrage of missiles meant for Peppercat. His thicker armour saved him from being blown apart, but the missiles may have well done that as he was thrown backwards. He landed hard and didn't get up.

"Totalizer 100 percent damage on all parts. Function ceased." Sloan's medawatch told him.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Stupid medabot! What did you hope to accomplish?" Meta-Evil taunted.

Then Cyandog landed on Omni-Emperor's shoulders.

"EVEN I CAN'T MISS AT THIS DISTANCE!" Cyandog yelled and let loose with both cannons blazing at point blank range. Omni-Emperor screamed at the sudden assault and shook his head and snapped his hair, trying to get Cyandog off. Cyandog, for his part, managed to stay on the head while firing the whole time.

"Whoa! Nice move Cyandog!" Metabee said.

Merer wasn't so happy.

"Spyke! Get him off! Quickly! Before…!"

Too late, and there was going to be hell to pay, as Cyandog finally miscalculated and Omni-Emperor snapped his head back and grabbed him in his teeth.  
"CYANDOG!" Spyke and Peppercat, who had finally managed to get to her feet again, screamed. A second later Cyandog started screaming himself as Omni-Emperor shook the medabot back and forth like a rag doll, the razor-sharp metal teeth ripping apart the dog medabot like the proverbial cheap chew toy.

"LET HIM GO!" Peppercat roared as she charged back on the attack.

"If you insist!" Meta-Evil said, and with that Omni-Emperor reared his head back and tossed the shattered medabot into Peppercat. The two tumbled to the ground, as Omni-Emperor opened his mouth again as an Armageddon blast ignited within him.

Peppercat managed to pick up Cyandog and drag him a few feet before Omni-Emperor fired the black blast. The attack missed but the area effect did the job for it, as Pepercat and Cyandog were consumed by the explosion caused by it. A second later their broken bodies came out of the smoke, almost as if they were floating, and crashed down to earth.

"Damn!" Merer cursed. The anger seething in his gut grew fiercer as he watched the damage Cyandog had wrought by his sacrifice start to disappear, even as he watched Samantha mourn her destroyed medabot.

And it was clear most of the others shared his feeling.

"DAMN YOU!"

A second later twin pairs of missiles fired by Kanteroth and Metabee slammed into Omni-Emperor's side. Omni-Emperor roared, even as the sheer force of the attack pitched him to the side. A second later Starkiller flipped over his body and let loose with a point-blank Nova Cannon shot in his face. Omni-Emperor was thrown onto his back.

"SHADOW SWORD!"

Actually, it was more like Shadow Stab, as Sumilidon leapt into the air and brought all the force of his attack right down on Omni-Emperor's chest. Chunks of armour flew off from the sheer impact of the attack, even as Omni-Emperor's body spasmed and then lay still.

Sumilidon yanked his Flexor sword out of the chest and glared down at his foe, unsure if whether he had actually won. If he actually had a mouth that could produce saliva, he would have spat on him as well.

"SUMILDON GET OFF OF THERE!" Koji screamed suddenly. Sumilidon's mistake was looking at his medafighter rather then obeying his order.

The Oblivion Blaster rose up suddenly and hit Sumilidon with a point-blank shot, nearly sheering the warrior medabot in half. The explosion tossed the medabot nearly thirty feet before he came crashing down.

"Warning. 97 pecent damage to all parts. Shutdown eminent." Koji's medawatch told him.

"No…Sumilidon…" Koji said as he ran to his fallen medabot.

"Koji…I'm sorry…I was foolish…forgive me…" Sumilidon said weakly, even as Omni-Emperor slowly pulled himself back upright, the damage to his frame fading rapidly.

"This is not good!" Ikki said.

"That's putting it mildly kid. We've lost half our numbers and everything we've done in return gets fixed as soon as we've done it!" Merer cursed.

"Maybe we should use the Medaforce!"

"What good would that do? It'll just get fixed!"

"Uh…WAIT! The medal! If we can get his medal out he'll stop functioning!" Ikki said, remembering the strategy that had stopped Giganko.

"Not this time, Ikki Tenryou!" Meta-Evil suddenly said. "I learned from the last time. You won't be taking Omni-Emperor's medal out…BECAUSE THE MEDAL IS FUSED RIGHT INTO HIS BODY! IT CAN NEVER BE REMOVED!"

"WHAT! You can't do that to a medabot!" Ikki said.

"Yeah! That's one of the biggest rules you can break! You can't-AHHHHHHHHH!" Mr. Referee said, popping out of cover due to his outrage at this latest revelation, before another barrage of missiles sent him scrambling back.

"Ok, scratch that idea! What else can we do?" Merer said.

"I don't know, but you better do it FAST!" Metabee said as he fled from Omni-Emperor's new flamethrower attack, even as the others were pinned down by a new barrage of machine gun fire.

"Dammit, this is ridiculous! That thing repairs any damage we do to it, and even if we could figure a way around that it doesn't change the fact that he has enough firepower to start World War III, with enough left over for half a dozen regional conflicts!" Ikki said. He glanced at Merer and then did a double take. Merer's eyes had gotten a strange trance-like gaze.

"Firepower…fire…power…fire……..power…Ikki, I have it! Gimme your medawatch!" Merer said, grabbing Ikki's wrist.

"Whoa! Careful! That's the hand I eat pizza with!"

"Metabee! Listen up! You have such a delightful caustic wit. Well, I want you to turn those biting words on Meta-Evil. In other words, insult him! A LOT!"

"WHAT? Are you crazy? Wouldn't making the lunatic who build the giant medabot who is trying to kill us all angry be a BAD THING? Metabee shot back.

"Just do it Metabee!"

"Yeah! Listen to him! He's the master of the mechanical…stuff!" Ikki added.

"Oh I see! When he's against us he's a flute-playing nutcase, but now that he's on our side he's "the master of the mechanical stuff!". Unlike you, Ikki, the master of the STUPID STUFF!"

"Just do it Metabee! And get prepared to run!" Merer said.

"Why do I feel this idea is very bad for us?" Metabee pondered. "Ok then! Hey Meta-Evil! What kind of a name is Meta-Evil anyway? You're meta…evil! Ohhh, how original! And speaking of originality, what's with these emperors? I mean, what's the next one going to be called? Super-Emperor? Imperial-Emperor? Super Mega Championship Turbo Really Really Really Cool This Time-Emperor?"

"HOW DARE YOU INSULT ME!!!!!!!!!!!! OMNI-EMPEROR, BLOW THAT GODDAMN MEDABOT INTO BITS!" Meta-Evil screamed.

"Whoa boy! Yikes! WHOA! OW, HOT! YIKES, SHARP! WHOA, COLD! EEEP, SLIMY!" Metabee yelped as Omni-Emperor turned to him and unleashed a storm of firepower, which grew more and more intense as Meta-Evil kept screaming for him to destroy Metabee.

"Hey moron! You couldn't hit a lake if you were standing on the bottom of it! Uh, your mother wore army boots! Uh, you've got ugly feet!" Metabee kept yelling.

"ARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! OMNI-EMPEROR, USE THE ARMAGEDDON CANNON! AND OBLIVION BLASTER! AT ONCE! I WANT NOTHING LEFT OF HIM. **_NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!_**" Meta-Evil screamed. Omni-Emperor roared as he assembled his hair strands even as he opened his mouth. Metabee's eyes went wide, and he ran for his life.

Until he tripped over a root. He landed and his eyes went even wider as Omni-Emperor aimed at him.

"Merer, I hate you!"

And Omni-Emperor fired, shooting off his mightiest weapons at once.

The kids had learned their lesson, and threw themselves on the ground. Meta-Evil hadn't, and was tossed ass over elbows backwards by the shockwave of the blast. His aerial vehicle, which he had arrived it and deployed Omni-Emperor from, and which had remained hovering over the battlefield the whole time, found it's orbit disrupted severely by the blast. The onboard computer tried to make the necessary corrections, but that proved impossible as the helicopter-esque plane spun out of control and crashed. The vehicle exploded behind Meta-Evil, but he barely seemed to notice as he got back up. The cat was not with him: It had been tossed off Meta-Evil's shoulders and had bugged out to be somewhere else.

"It was worth it." he said.

"Metabee?" Ikki asked the smoke.

Metabee though the rushing feeling he felt meant he was on his way to meda-heaven, and then his eyes opened and he realized it wasn't his time yet.

"Starkiller!"

Starkiller braked to a halt, putting down Metabee.

"You may rock, but I roll." Starkiller said, switching back to Warrior mode.

"You survived? Impossible!" Meta-Evil said.

"Yes, impossible if I hadn't zipped in and grabbed him away from the jaws of death." Starkiller said.

"It doesn't matter! They will claim him yet! As well as all of you!"

"Don't be so sure." Merer said, as the smoke around Omni-Emperor cleared.

The massive medabot stood limply, it's arms laying at it's size like dead wood, its demonic head lolled to the side as steam issued from its mouth and a few other places.

"What?"

"Simple knowledge of machinery, Meta-Evil. You can't have certain actions without certain reactions. Your Omni-Emperor is built well…but unfortunately, after firing all those weapons for such a prolonged period…it was simply too much. It's called overheating." Merer said.

"Yes! We took him down!" Ikki cheered.

"Not quite yet." Merer said.

Meta-Evil chuckled.

"Indeed."

There was a slight sound of whirring and then Omni-Emperor jerked back to life, the last tendrils of steam and smoke issuing from him as he raised his arms and snapped his tail, almost like he was stretching.  Meta-Evil smiled.

"You thought your little ploy would destroy Omni-Emperor? I think not! You may have made him overheat, but he is far too superior to be crippled by such a condition for long! Now, prepare to meet your doom!"

"I think you have that in reverse! CHANBARA SWORD!" Rokusho yelled as he dropped on Omni-Emperor from above. The massive medabot saw him coming though, and blocked him with one of his arms, the Chanbara sword gorging a long line down it. Rokusho landed and retreated as Omni-Emperor's shoulder machine guns sprayed bullets at him.

"Nice try! But that is the last time you will…will…no…no…" Meta-Evil said before he trailed off, his tone suddenly filled with horror. Ikki blinked and then realized what he was looking at. The scratch wasn't disappearing. It remained.

"I must admit you have talent, Meta-Evil. Designing such an advanced nanotechnology system that fixes damages so quickly. I'm impressed, I really am. But something occurred to me. Such an advanced system was probably another thing: Delicate. Very delicate. Too delicate, I guess, to endure such a rapid rise in heat so quickly. Well, you win some, you lose some. And you're about to lose this one, Meta-Evil. We're in the final stretch, kids. Let's take this guy down."

"I think not! You may have overcome the repair system but that will not save you! BLITZKRIEG ATTACK!"

Omni-Emperor once again raised his arms and hair as his sides, chest, and tail opened and fired the storm of missiles. This time however, Meta-Evil had done it too early and given the medabots time to run for it. The ground was rocked by another series of explosions.

"YEAH-YEAH!" Metabee yelled as he leapt out of the smoke, firing his laser cannons. Then Omni-Emperor fired his five-pronged laser blaster at him and Metabee decided maybe discretion was the better part of valour.

Rokusho and Starkiller emerged from the smoke, dodging Omni-Emperor's machine cannons and hair-fired arrows as they leapt, each slashing the massive medabot. It roared and formed the Oblivion Blaster again, firing the beam across the ground and scattering the attacking medabots with the explosion.

"Fight with all your might! It doesn't matter! I am unstoppable! UNSTOPPABLE!" Meta-Evil ranted.

"Does this guy ever shut up?" Merer said.

"No. If he did it would be a great surprise." Ikki replied.

"This battle won't end in a surprise! Omni-Emperor…" Meta-Evil began to order.

And suddenly Peppercat landed on Omni-Emperor's head again.

"SURPRISE!" the cat medabot yelled, and zapped Omni-Emperor. He roared and tossed the cat medabot off, and she rabbited (er, pussyfooted?) before the medabot could counter.

"WHAT?" Meta-Evil said.

"I echo that. Peppercat was virtually in pieces! How did she…oh." Merer said as he realized it. He decided against voicing it: Meta-Evil didn't seem to know either and that was better.

"LASER!"

It appeared that it wasn't just the Screw's leader that was back in action. Omni-Emperor bellowed as the attack hit him, but his eyes were still messed up by the electric shock and he missed his counter-attack, as Totalizer fled back to Sloan. Good thing too, for while the medabots had managed to get back up, Merer had a feeling that from their battered appearance it would just take a tap to send them back down. He looked for Cyandog but didn't see him. _Guess he was beyond help…_

"Ok guys! Let's finish this guy off! Missile Launch!" Metabee yelled as he fired off two more rockets. Omni-Emperor blew them out of the sky. "Nuts!"

Omni-Emperor fired his own barrage of rockets back at Metabee.

"And on the other hand, BOLTS!" Metabee yelled, describing himself as he ran away. 

"Nova Lance!"

Starkiller sped pass Omni-Emperor, using her enhanced sword as a sword instead of a spear, slashing Omni-Emperor across the gut. He roared and turned to counter, and then Kanteroth hit him in the back with a pair of missiles. Roaring again, Omni-Emperor turned and let loose with the Armageddon Cannon shot he had prepared for Starkiller. Kanteroth tried to run, but he was too slow…

"OH NO! NOT YOU DUDE!" Rintaro wailed as his medabot was blown away.

"Kanteroth 100 percent damage. Function ceased."

"No! I can keep fighting! I can…" Kanteroth said, trying to get up. Rintaro ran over to him, trying to get him to cover.

"MWA HA! You see! Even without the nanobots this battle is still mine! I will see you all dead yet!"

"YOU WON'T SEE ANYTHING!"

And Baton suddenly swooped out of the sky, clawing at Meta-Evil's face. He yelled as he tried to ward off the furious robot bird, even as the parrot pressed his furious attack.

"Polly wanna claw your eyes out!" Baton sneered, as he continued to attack the man who had ruined his and Rokusho's peaceful lives with his mad dreams of power and destruction. 

And it cost him, as Meta-Evil transformed one of his arms into a hammer and smacked the bird. Baton squawked in pain as Meta-Evil grabbed him.

"You forget I have implemented Medabot technology into myself! And it will cost you your life! Omni-Emperor, turn this parrot into turkey!" Meta-Evil ordered. And he threw Baton at his creation, even as Omni-Emperor opened with mouth with a new Armageddon cannon shot emerging…

"NO!"

Rokusho leapt up, putting himself between his friend and the blast, shielding Baton from Omni-Emperor.

"ROKUSHO!" Merer said in horror.

The attack was devastating, even more so then the usual damage the Armageddon cannon could inflict, as Rokusho took it directly in the back, unable to mount any defense at all in his attempt to save Baton.

"Oh no…" Merer said as Rokusho fell to the ground. He hadn't even been able to scream.

"Dear god, is he still alive?" Ikki said, as he looked at the broken form of Rokusho.

"Rokusho! ARGGGHHHH! That's it! Now I'm really angry!" Metabee yelled as he charged again, firing his laser cannon.

"Wait! Don't let you anger cloud your judgement! Metabee…!" Starkiller said as she hopped over.

And allowed Omni-Emperor to get both of them with a barrage of missiles. The two of them yelled as they were tossed back.

"Warning. Metabee body damaged 85 percent. Legs 90 percent, both arms 92 percent." Ikki's medawatch told him.

"Master…I can't keep this up much longer…" Starkiller groaned as she tried to get to her feet. Merer agreed: Starkiller's damage ratings were nearly as bad as Metabee's.

"La-!"

Omni-Emperor turned and strafed both Peppercat and Totalizer with his shoulder cannons backed up by one arm's hidden Gatling guns. They fell back with a cry, their badly damaged bodies not able to take much more.

Starkiller's eyes blazed.

"I have had ENOUGH! NOVA-!"

Omni-Emperor let loose with another Armageddon blast. Starkiller leapt back to avoid a direct hit, but in her weakened state even the area effect was enough to knock her back down. She hit the ground hard.

"Starkiller!" Merer said in horror.

"Must go on…must keep fighting…"Starkiller cursed, trying to work through the pain and weakness that throbbed through every part of her being.

"AHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHA! Nothing can save you now!" Meta-Evil laughed. And it looked like he was right: there were no medabots left standing. They were all on the ground, scattered like broken dolls.

"Ikki…" Metabee said as he tried to get back up. "I hope you have an idea, and if you don't, get one fast!"

"I…I…" Ikki stammered.

"Who's going to save you now, Ikki Tenryou? No one! I have been sickened by your presence long enough! Omni-Emperor, KILL HIM!"

"NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Metabee screamed as Omni-Emperor turned his head towards Ikki, the Omni-Targeter popping out, arming, and…

…getting knocked off to the side by a sudden shot. The laser blast exploded a foot to Ikki's left.

"Nothing can save you, huh?" Spyke suddenly said.

A storm of shots suddenly exploded across Omni-Emperor's eyes. It bellowed in pain and raised it's arm to the damaged sight devices.

"How about a finally fixed CROSSERDOG?" Spyke crowed. A grin of amazement split Ikki's face. _Talk about great timing._

"Crosserdog, attack!" Spyke ordered. The medabot obeyed, dashing at Omni-Emperor as it let loose with it's Battle Rifles. The shots exploded across Omni-Emperor, who bellowed and returned fire. However, it's eyes werer still messed up and it's bullets and missiles missed as Crosserdog dashed right up in front of Omni-Emperor.

"HIT HIM WITH EVERYTHING! HOLD NOTHING BACK!" Spyke yelled. And Crosserdog did just that, as it ducked under a clumsy swipe, leapt over a scything tail slash, and slammed it's arms into Omni-Emperor's chest, opening fire at point blank range.

"INSECT! SQUASH HIM!" Meta-Evil screamed. And Omni-Emperor was trying, but his wrecked eyesight, first damaged by Peppercat's electric shock and furthered by Crosserdog's projectiles, and Crosserdog's high speed allowed the dog medabot to basically run back and forth in front of Omni-Emperor as he fired the whole time.  
"Whoever though he had it in him?" Samantha said in wonder. Indeed, Spyke certainly looked proud.

"Until Omni-Emperor finally gave a roar of pure fury and turned his arms and cannons inward and in front of him and barraged the ground in front of him, blowing Crosserdog away by sheer force of firepower. The smoking medabot flew up into the air and Omni-Emperor nearly broke him in half with a vicious tail swipe.

"CROSSERDOG!" Spyke wailed.

"Then again, it's still Spyke." Samantha said.

"Yeah…" Merer said, as his sharp eyes zeroed in on something. "But he did good! Ikki! I think Crosserdog's barrage opened up a crack in his chest armour!" Merer yelled. Indeed, there was a large mar on the previously pristine chest armour of Omni-Emperor.

Ikki knew enough about medabots to understand the possibility that was now presented. The chest armour on medabots was usually the thickest, since many vital functions were under there. Meta-Evil had probably made sure that Omni-Emperor's armour was of the highest quality there. With the nanobots fried, a crack meant…

"Metabee!"

But Metabee already knew the order.

"I know! Crosserdog made a crack, now I'll make that crack BIGGER! MISSILE LAUNCH!" Metabee yelled, firing off another pair of rockets.

Omni-Emperor should have shot them down too, but his eyes were still damaged, and his counter laser missed. The missiles slammed into his chest. Omni-Emperor roared.

"Keep firing at his eyes!" Erika yelled. She had pretty much been reduced to cheerleader by the sheer hell she had witnessed.

"I don't think so!" Meta-Evil said. Omni Emperor shook his head and then a new set of clear armour slammed over Omni-Emperor's upper face.

"Dammit!" Merer cursed. "Ok Starkiller, keep it up!"

"You got it! NOVA CANNON!" Starkiller yelled, and fired. But Omni-Emperor turked away and the attack just hit his flank.

"You call that a laser blast? TRY THIS!" Meta-Evil said as Omni-Emperor's hair rose up and aimed at Starkiller as dozens of laser cannons armed.

"SHADOW SWORD!"

Omni-Emperor bellowed in pain as Sumilidon came slashing out of the sky and severed the metal bands of hair at the roots. The cannon fell apart as the system was destroyed, the metal strands flopping to the ground as faint electric shocks in their destroyed systems caused them to twitch like drowning worms.

"NO!" Meta-Evil cried. "You were down! How did…ARGH! KILL THEM ALL!"

It was clear Meta-Evil's planned strategy was degenerating into his madness, and it showed, as Omni-Emperor, ultimately just a puppet in a madman's hands, turned to shoot at Sumilidon and Starkiller was true with her second shot, catching Omni-Emperor full in the chest. It bellowed, even as broken chunks of armour fell. The crack was now huge, and other cracks had sprung up around it.

"Keep going!" Merer ordered. Then he had to get out of the way as Omni-Emperor fired missiles at him and he ran for cover. While he had stuck mostly with his medabot opponents before, Omni-Emperor was now beginning to resemble a cornered animal, striking at whatever target he could find.

"Kill them! KILL THEM ALL! KILL THEM ALL!" Meta-Evil screamed.

"No!"

And then Rokusho leapt out of the shadows, his blade catching Omni-Emperor right across the face.

"That was for Baton!"

Omni-Emperor swiped at him. He dodged the blow and slashed the arm. Omni-Emperor bellowed again.

"That was for Dr. Hushi!"

Omni-Emperor tried his tail. Rokusho leapt over it, flipped over Omni-Emperor's head, and as the tail swung back, snapped out his Chanbara sword, burying it in Omni-Emperor's tail. The bellow became a scream.

"That was for the children you dared threaten!"

"How the hell is he doing that? He was nearly blown to pieces!" Merer said.

"Sheer drive. And a little help." Starkiller said.

"What? Help?"

"I don't blame you for not noticing Merer, but most of us wouldn't be able to go on if it hadn't been for our…"help"." Starkiller said, as Rokusho dodged away from a missile and machine gun blast, flipping back over Omni-Emperor and back in front of him. He back flipped away.

"KILL HIM!"

Rokusho stopped his flips, tensed, and then leapt up as Omni-Emperor fired his Armageddon cannon. The ground exploded beneath him, framing Rokusho in fire as he landed, ever as silver energy suddenly exploded around.

"AND THIS…" Rokusho roared, even as the energy exploded into even greater brilliance as he drew up his arm, "IS FOR ME! MEDAFORCE!!!!!!!"

The silver bolt of power blasted along the ground, and Omni-Emperor's silhouette was lost in the explosion as it hit him. The ground rumbled, even as dust blasted upward and pelted the warriors. Unheard in the noise was the sound of a shattered chest plate hitting the ground, blown off by the Medaforce.

"No! This can't be happening! I'm supposed to win! AND DESTROY! DESTROY!!!!!!!!!!" Meta-Evil screamed.

Omni-Emperor took that as an order, as he aimed his missile launcher at Rokusho and fired. The exhausted medabot still had his wits about him through, as he leapt backwards. But he was too tired to be fast enough, and was caught by the last two. He hit the ground, a low groan the only indication he was still alive.

"NO! You medabastard! TAKE THIS!" Metabee yelled, firing his cannons. Omni-Emperor weathered the shots, even as Starkiller switched to Speed Mode and blasted off towards Omni-Emperor. Merer was about to give her an order that mostly involved her stabbing her sword into Omni-Emperor's now exposed chest, but then Omni-Emperor popped out his Omni-Targeter and Starkiller had to switch back to Warrior to avoid getting beaten via that weak but accurate cannon in his lessened state. Merer glanced at his advanced medawatch, which was monitoring not only Starkiller but had managed to get a pretty good reading on Omni-Emperor as well. _Damn, he's reeling! We just need to knock him down!_

"Rokusho!"

The female voice caught Merer's ear, since he hadn't heard it for a while. His eyes followed it. _Karen! Of course! I forgot all about Neutranurse! Those kids are smarter then I thought: they managed to whip up a system that allowed her to have Neutranurse heal the injured while Meta-Evil was distracted by the others. No wonder the ones whom I thought were finished got back up!_

Unfortunately, this had worked because of one other factor: Karen had kept silent, giving whispered orders to Neutranurse which were quickly and quietly carried out. However, seeing Rokusho get trashed for the second time had brought the kind heart out again, which Karen had a habit of expressing verbally.

And it cost her, as Merer wasn't the only one who heard her, and followed the voice to see her gesturing at Neutranurse to go help.

Meta-Evil had as well.

"Of course. I should have known. OMNI-EMPEROR, KILL THAT LITTLE BITCH!"

"What? NO!" Ikki screamed. Karen's eyes suddenly filled with fear as Omni-Emperor aimed at her, his mouth opening.

"HELP!"

"KAREN!" Ikki screamed, running towards her. If he had to he'd take the blast for her…

But in the end Neutranurse beat him to it, as she ran back and threw herself in front of Karen, activating her shield…

Which didn't do anything in the end, as the Armageddon blast was so power it shattered the shield and slammed into Neutranurse. The explosion blew the medabot backward and right into Karen, who went down with a cry of pain, more so that her medabot had been hurt then the fact SHE'D been hurt.

"Karen! Neutranurse! ARGGGGHHHHHH! THAT'S IT! **_NOW I'M REALLY ANGRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!_**" Metabee screamed.

The gold power reappeared on Metabee's medal, enveloping him once more.

"I don't think so! Omni-Emperor, destroy him!"

"Guys! Metabee needs time to charge up the Medaforce! Give him that time!" Merer ordered, even as he dashed over to Karen and Neutranurse. Karen apparently had only suffered a few bruises, but her heartache over Neutranurse being hurt was as bad as physical pain. Merer growled and turned back to the battle. 

The group has listened, as the Peppercat, Totalizer, Sumilidon and Kanteroth, despite all of them having one foot in the grave and another on a banana peel had leapt on Omni-Emperor, doing their best to keep him from firing. Omni-Emperor thrashed, trying to get the annoying medabots off.

Metabee continued to charge, even as his eyes blazed. Those bastards were going to pay!

Omni-Emperor screamed, but finally managed to toss the medabots clinging to him off. With a growl of satisfaction, he aimed both arms at Metabee.

"Metabee!" Ikki said.

"Wait!" Merer said as he ran over to Ikki's side. "You hear how Omni-Emperor screamed before he threw them off? I think Sumilidon managed to jam his sword into the hole in his chest!"

"Your point being?"

"I think, if my readings are correct, that it messed up his targeting system! METABEE! DÉJÀ VU! DON'T MOVE!" Merer yelled.

"YOU'D BETTER BE RIGHT, MERER!" Metabee yelled, as Omni-Emperor's weapons blazed. _Oh dear…_

Bullets raked the ground in front of Metabee, even as missiles exploded on each side of him and lasers blasted over his head. But nothing hit him.

"NO! HOW COULD YOU MISS?" Meta-Evil cursed. "Well, this won't miss! OMNI-TARGETER!"

"SURE SHOT!"

"ARGH!" Omni-Emperor bellowed as Brass's concentrated shot finished the job Crosserdog had started, blowing the Omni-Targeter cannon into pieces. Omni-Emperor tried to aim the other cannon he had on the other side as a substitute, but then Starkiller came crashing down on his head, her sword slicing out and chopping it off. She leapt off his head and ran as Omni-Emperor tried to pull himself together. He fired more missiles, but they missed again.

"You fool!"

"You sure have worked more on your aim, but maybe you should look for someone to blame, 'cause I say it's time your time finally came, and your just hurt a mighty fine dame…" Metabee chanted, even as the power soared to a cresendo within him. Starkiller came to a stop next to him.

"AND I CAN'T THINK OF AN E WORD THAT RHYMES, SO LET'S JUST SAY, YOU'RE GOING DOWN, IN **_FLAMES!_**" Metabee roared.

"And I'm going up!" Starkiller yelled as she leapt up into the air. She tossed her sword above her and began to gather her own power.

"You think you've won? I THINK NOT! I STILL HAVE ONE MORE ATTACK! OMNI-EMPEROR, BLITZKRIEG ATTACK!" 

Omni-Emperor, battered and smoking, roared and began opening the ports for the barrage of missiles.

"Starkiller, you know what to do!" Merer said.

And then Omni-Emperor struck, dozens of missiles flying from him.

And Starkiller's blue blasts came raining down, destroying the missiles in mid-air. Omni-Emperor roared as he was caught in the sudden deaths of his projectiles, the explosions scorching and burning him.

"NO! DO IT AGAIN!"

"I think not! You won't be doing anything after I scramble his systems with THIS!" Starkiller yelled, and fired off her four arcing blasts. They struck Omni-Emperor, scorching his black skin even darker. Omni-Emperor jerked like an epileptic having a seizure.

Starkiller slammed out her arms as they transformed into cannons.

Metabee thrust his arms up.

"See ya, wouldn't wanna be ya." Ikki said.

A blue glow lit up in front of Starkiller.

"NOVA STORM!!!!!!!!!!!!"  
"MEDAFORCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Metabee yelled, and fired the golden blast.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!" Meta-Evil screamed.

The twin blasts of the Nova Storm flew down and met the Medaforce, wraping around it and merging with it as it blasted at Omni-Emperor.

"KISS YOUR BOT GOODBYE!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The blast hit, and for a second you could almost hear a scream.

Then the explosion drowned out everything else, as Omni-Emperor perished in the heart of an inferno. A massive mushroom cloud plumed upward, and it rained fire for miles around.

Metabee lowered his arms, exhausted and hurting, but clearly quite satisfied.

"Dude, I rock."

"And how did I do, Metabee?" Starkiller said as she landed next to him, reaching up and catching her sword.

"Not bad…for a girl!"

Starkiller laughed.

"You WISH you could do better." She said, and she and Metabee exchanged a high-five.

"We did it…it's over…it's finally over…" Koji said, as he helped a badly damaged Sumilidon over to Karen and Neutranurse. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah…we'll be ok." Karen said. "Koji, why would a man…be so…?"

Koji had no answers.

"Well that could have gone better." Samantha said.

"It could have gone worse too boss." Sloan added.

"How could it? I just got him fixed!" Spyke said, as he carried the badly damaged Crosserdog over to where he had left Cyandog's body.

"You did great dude. Be proud." Rintaro said to Kanteroth. Kanteroth game him a weak thumbs up.

"Thanks for the help Erika."

"Brass deserves all the credit."

"We both did well Erika."

"Next time Baton, I would appreciate it if you didn't get involved." Rokusho said, limping over to the group.

"I'll keep that in mind."

"Man…this has been such a long day…hey, wait a minute, where's Merer?" Ikki said.

Then everyone yelled as a laser bolt narrowly missed the group.

"No! It can't be…!" Ikki said, as the smoke finally fully cleared away.

It wasn't: Omni-Emperor was gone. But Meta-Evil, one of his arms converted into a cannon, was still there. If the medabots had been fresh, they might have done more then stand or still there. But they all had nothing left.

"You stupid children. You think you've won? You have only delayed the inevitable! I'll be back! And you won't escape next time! I'll build something bigger, strong, nastier, more horrible then you can imagine! I will not rest until you have…"

Meta-Evil trailed off as a shadow fell over him, and he jerked, turning around and aiming his cannon.

Merer caught his arm and yanked it aside, glaring down on Meta-Evil.

"Thanks Meta-Evil. Really. You put it all in perspective. If I hadn't met you, I would have become you."

And then Merer hit him, punching Meta-Evil with all the strength he had. Meta-Evil left his feet and hit the ground, groaning. Merer stared after him for a few seconds, holding the glare.

"Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster. And when you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes back." Merer quoted.

And then his face cracked as he suddenly grabbed his hand.

"OW-WOUCH! Now I know why I let medabots do the fighting for me."

Meta-Evil rolled over and tried to get to his feet. Another shadow fell over him, and he raised his bleeding face to look at Mr. Referee.

"My my. Multiple counts of attempted murder, using illegal medabot parts, attempting to use a medabot with lethal intent, shooting at the referee…you've been a bad boy. But you'll be properly taken care of." Mr. Referee said, as members of Select Corps pushed past him and handcuffed the beaten mad scientist.

"Hey, where did they come from?" Ikki asked.

"I call them while you were fighting." Mr. Referee answered.

"Uh…when?"

"About three minutes ago."

"WHAT? Moron, we've been battling for a lot longer then that! Why didn't you call them earlier!"

"Hey, you try thinking about things like that when you're having missiles shot at you!"

Everyone facevaulted.

On the ground lay a black medal with a pitchfork on it, a long crack across it. Slowly, Metabee picked it up and looked at it.

"Poor fool. Existing only to destroy. What a pitiful existence." Metabee said.

He looked at the medal for a few more seconds, then dropped it and stomped on it, grinding it to dust underneath his heel.

"You're better off that way."

"I almost pity him." Koji said, as Meta-Evil was dragged away to a waiting paddy wagon.

"A man puts machinery into his body…machinery he programmed with the computer equivalent of his thoughts: I will rule the world, no one can stop me. When Ikki beat him…I guess his computer malfunctioned at the concept that he could be beaten. Combine that with his rage at losing to Ikki…insanity and program error. A double whammy." Merer said.

"He made his choice." Starkiller said.

"Yeah. I just wish it could have been to have gone into a nice coma instead of building an army of wannabe medabots and one hell of a nasty piece of machinery." Metabee said.

"Oh, I almost forgot!" Mr. Referee said as he turned around. "FUNCTION CEASED! THE WINNERS ARE…THE SCREWS!"

"Respect regained!" Samantha said as she and the Screws posed in front of her Here and Gone Again Background.

"Rintaro and Kanteroth!"

"Awesome dude!"

"Koji and Sumilidon!"

"Was there ever any doubt?"

"Rokusho and Baton!"

"….."

"With help from Karen and Neutranurse!"

"Glad to be of assistance!"

"And Erika and Brass!"

"I can see the headlines! "Heroic Reporter helps save world!'"

"Merer "Flute" Pimon and Starkiller!"

"Best there is, best there was, best there ever will be, no doubt."

"And Ikki and METABEE!"

"Dude, I rock." Ikki said.

"Hey, that's my line!"

"Ok, we both rock!"

"Yes, we do!"

"Ok guys!" Erika said as she ran in front of the group. "This is for the front page, so make it look good, and smile!"

CLICK!

To be Concluded! 

_More Medabots, More Power!_


	10. Home is Where The Heart Is

Epilogue: Home is Where The Heart Is

He almost made it, but Ikki caught him in the corner of his eye.

"HEY! Merer, where do you think you're going?" Ikki said, dashing over to the scarred medafighter. Merer sighed. _It figures._

"I'm leaving. The battle's over, we won, the bad guy's going to jail, and I'm tired and hurt. So I'm going someplace other then here."

"Maybe you think I have a short memory, but I don't! You made a promise, Mr. Pimon. If I beat you, you go home! And I beat you! I would think in regards to your life, you would be a man who keeps your word."

Merer sighed.

"Life. On that note, let me just say what I should have said. It's not that easy Ikki…"

"Why not?" Metabee said, walking up as he started adding his two cents. "It's not like your parents hated you for failing. They would be happy to have their supposedly dead son back."

"That's just the point Metabee! To the world, I'm dead! To them, I'm gone! You say I'm slowly killing them, by not being there…but how can I be sure being there will be any better? If I go home, go back…there will be questions. How can I explain to them where I've been, why I did what I did…I've been such a bad son…" Merer said, burying his face in one hand. 

"Then make it up to them. Any way you can."

"Ikki, this isn't some movie. I can't just swear improvement and expect a screen that says "And they lived happily ever after" to come up. God…eight years…all because of one lost robattle…what a petty spiteful person I've become…maybe it would be better if Merer Pimon just died. Maybe Flute should be my future…for the ultimate greater good…but damn…just one lost robattle…"

"Oh yes, I almost forgot!" Mr. Referee said as he walked up, having seen the Select Corps detained Dr. Meta-Evil off. "I was going to say something, but you two started fighting and then that nutcase showed up and there were all those explosions…anyway, you were right, Merer Pimon. That referee who called your tournament was indeed expelled for corruption and a variety of other charges of bribery and general unfairness. The evidence was from several different robattles, but it was suspected he had his hand in dozens more…including yours."

"Good for you." Merer said, not very nicely. What was the point of this?

"I'm not finished! Apon reviewing such evidence, in collaboration with my own observations that you clearly do not use illegal medabot parts, we came to a quick decision! So, on behalf of the World Medabot Federation, Mr. Referee, officially overturn the results of the 14th Annual Chin Tyu Robattle Tournament and award the victory to the runner up, you, Merer Pimon!"

And before Merer could respond, Mr. Referee produced a small bronze plaque and handed it to him. "It's not a trophy, but it's the best we could do on such short notice, and we will make sure all future histories are properly changed!"

Merer blinked, and then slowly looked at the small plaque and then back to Mr. Referee.

"……………………………Thank you."

"Not a problem! I hate cheaters myself! Well, I think that's everything! See ya all!" Mr. Referee said, and ran off.

Ikki was going to say something, but stopped when he saw Merer looking at his plaque, a thoughtful expression on his face.

"Such a small thing…such effort and pain…for such a small thing…and yet I find now that I have it…it doesn't seem to matter all that much any more."

"Does that mean…" Ikki said, and trailed off. Speech would be a detriment to the moment."

" "What other dungeon is so dark as one's own heart! What jailer so inexorable as one's self!" Nathaniel Hawthorne." Merer said, and then slowly put the plaque away in a pocket.

"Master." Starkiller said, walking up and offering Merer the cloak he had tossed off some time ago. "Your garment."

Merer took it, moving his hands along the fabric until he found where the hood was, the hood that had once covered his face, hiding it in shadow, the shadow that lurked in his own being. Threatening to consume him.

Merer sighed.

" "No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be true." Hawthorne again." Merer said, and then with a quick jerk he grabbed the hood and ripped it off the cloak.

"RIP Flute. I thought you were my future. But you're not. You're just an echo of the past…a past better left dead and buried." Merer said, and swung the cloak back over his shoulders.

"So...?" Ikki began.

"Aw man, both my medabots trashed! It'll take me forever to save up to get them both fixed!" Spyke said loudly as he joined the group that had gathered in front of Merer.

"It works out for you Spyke! That way, you can't lose any more robattles!" Samantha laughed.

"Aw man, that was low boss…" Spyke moaned. He didn't notice Merer reaching into another pocket and writing something until he passed it to him.

"Here. That should cover your repairs. Your friends as well." Merer said. Spyke looked at the check and his eyes nearly bugged out of his head.

"Our paths part now. Farewell. Ikki, keep going. Us prodigies can only be limited by ourselves. You are proof that it's not the medabot, but what's up here, and in here." Merer said, indicating his head and chest. "A cliché, but it's true."

"What about you?"

"I will walk my path now. Wherever it goes. Triumph or tragedy, victory or defeat. But this time…I will walk in the sun."

And Merer "Flute" Pimon turned, and with a gentle breeze flapping his cloak, began to leave.

"Oh, and Metabee?"

"Yeah?" Metabee said, eager for any advice a genius medafighter could give him.

"Listen to Ikki once in a while. No man, or medabot, is an island."

"……..WHAT? You telling me what to do? Why I oughtta…! Hey you! Since we don't know if you're gonna listen, I demand the usual price for a victory: A medapart!"

"All of Starkiller's parts are specifically configured to her. Even if I gave you one, it wouldn't work."

"Well you're the mechanical genius! Build me one!"

"Great. Look me up in the phone book." Merer said as he began to disappear over a hill.

"Ok…HEY WAIT! THE WORLD THINKS YOU'RE DEAD! YOU WON'T BE IN THE PHONE BOOK!"

"Well, I guess that's your problem." Merer said, and with that, he was gone, a slight burst of flute music carrying back like laughter at Metabee's plight.

"GIYIYIYYIYIIYIYYIIYI! I swear, next time I'm gonna medabop that guy so hard he'll…!"

"Enough Metabee. Let's go home. It's been a long day." Ikki said.

And with that, the group left the site that Meta-Evil had desired to be their graveyard, but in the end was only a platform for their own skill and determination.

And one last question.

"Hey dudes, where did the Rubberrobos go?"

"Ahhhhhhhhhh. No wonder this stuff is so expensive!" Seymour said as he sipped the wine from the glass. His companions were expressing similar pleasures.

"Well, the boss might have turned out to be a total nutcase, but he built some nice medals." Shrimpy said.

"Yep! And they're even nicer when you can sell them to a rich collector who totally bought our story! Yeah, they're rare…but with the M-Bots gone, they're also worthless! HA HA! It is so nice to outsmart someone for a change!" Seymour said.

"It ain't so great. I prefer Pepsi." Guido said.

"Well go buy some! For once we have money! Lots of it! HA HA!" Seymour said, enjoying his little victory and the fact he was eating at such a fancy restaurant. 

"Yeah, but that begs the question Seymour. What do we do with all the money we now have?" Gilda asked.

"My dear Gillgirl, there will be plenty of time for that tomorrow! But let me say, we can do anything we want! The boss had a few plans I overheard, and if they don't pan out, we can always think of something ourselves! But for now, let us just relax and think that while we didn't beat the kids, we won anyway!"

"I'll drink to that!"

"To us!"

"And our surely profitable future!"

"Well at least I can buy clean socks now."

CLINK!

In the process of trying to get the truck out of the wrecked area that had mostly been devastated by Omni-Emporer, no one saw the small feline figure leap from the nearest tree onto the truck roof.

Ikki's group had dwindled down to himself, Erika, Karen, and Koji, along with their medabots by the time Mr. Referee caught up to them again.

"Hey! Wait!"

"Ahhhh! You again? Man, you must really like us!" Metabee said.

"No. I just have one more thing to do before I quit for the day!"

"Oh? What's that?" Koji asked.

"Due to the actions of the past several days, we have had to made more then a few revisions to the Medafighter ranks. And it is custom to tell the most important person in person."

"What?" Ikki and Koji said at the same time, before Mr. Referee handed Ikki a small chart.

"Congratulations, Ikki Tenryou! You defeated the medabot Starkiller, along with having a big hand in defeating Omni-Emporer, and by virtue of those victories have prove yourself worthy of this position! You are now the No 1 Medafighter in Japan!"

Both Ikki and Koji's jaw hit the ground. A second later Erika's jaw followed suit.

"No way!" Ikki and Koji said, echoing each other again.

"Yes! Well done!" Mr. Referee said, and started to leave.

"YES! YES! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Ikki and Metabee yelled, as they jumped into each other's arms and started dancing. Koji grabbed up the dropped chart and saw that he was now No 3, behind the ever-cocky Space Medafighter X.

"I don't believe it. Why? WHY?" Koji said.

"Yeah! I-AM-NUMBER 1! NO MATTER IF YOU LIKE IT! HERE, TAKE IT DOWN AND WRITE IT! I-AM-NO 1! HEY-HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY!" Ikki and Metabee sang as they danced around. Koji buried his head in his hands.

"How could that old piece of junk succeed? Where I failed?"

"Don't worry Koji, there's always tomorrow." Sumilidon said.

"What a story! Stop the presses!" Erika said. Karen looked confused.

"Do you even have presses to run?"

Mr. Referee's cell phone trilled. He stopped and answered it.

"What does it take to be No 1? Two is not a winner, and three no one remembers! What…"

"Hold it! Last minute change!" Mr. Referee said as he ran back and grabbed up the chart. Ikki and Metabee stopped.

"Huh?"

"Apparently while you and your friends were dealing with Omni-Emperor, Space Medafighter X beat several new challengers. So he is number 1 again. Sorry, that's just the way it goes." Mr. Referee said. And with that he left Ikki and Metabee standing in shock.

"No 1…we had it…we had it…" Metabee moaned.

"AHHAHAHA! YOU AIN'T NO 1!" Koji sang, and began doing his own dance. "What does it take to be No 1? Two is not a winner, and three no one remembers…" Koji trailed off. "Wait, I think I just insulted myself."

"Well, the fact that we were No 1 for a second means it is obtainable! Come on Ikki! Tomorrow is another day!" Metabee said, and ran for home.

"Yes, and with God as my witness, I'll never be hungry again!" Ikki said.

"WHAT?"

"Sorry, Merer got me in a quoting mood…"

"Ok buddy…" The Select Corps member said as he finished undoing the locks that held their prisoner in the truck. "Don't make a fuss and we won't have to…"

The truck doors swung open to reveal nothing but some discarded restraints. 

"……..HEY! HE'S ESCAPED!"

"ESCAPE!"

"SEAL OFF THE PERIMETER!"

"GET AIR UNITS UP!"

"HURRY!"

The Select Corps's efforts were destined to be in vain, as a small figure crawled through a forest a long way from where they were searching. A small cat prowled next to them as they made their way through the woods. For the moment, their destination was unknown, but they would find one. And begin anew.

The rage burned in Meta-Evil. Bubbling over, he raised his head to the sky and screamed.

"JUST YOU WAIT! YOU WILL PAY IN BLOOD, IKKI TENRYOU! AND YOU AS WELL, MERER PIMON! TIME IS ENDLESS! AS IS MY HATRED! AND ONE DAY, WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT IT, META-EVIL WILL RETURN, AND YOU WILL DIE **_SCREAMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"_**

The bell rang, which greatly startled Suzanne. Because the bell would only ring if someone was at the door. But to get through the door, you had to come through the gate at the beginning of the driveway, and the only way to open that gate was to be buzzed in, or know the code, which only she and her employers knew. Now, a burglar might not try to come in through the open gate, but they certainly wouldn't ring the bell.

Some childish prank, by some agile little brat who had managed to climb over the gates, probably.

"Who is it Suzanne?"

"No one! Don't get up!" Suzanne said, as she headed for the front door.Well, if they hadn't run off like the cowards they probably were, she was going to give them hell.

"Listen you…!" Suzanne yelled as she opened the front door. And then she went silent as she saw a ghost.

Merer wasn't surprised to see Suzanne. She had always been a great help.

"Really Suzanne. Not changing the code in eight years. I know it's a complicated code but still…not very responsible."

Suzanne let out a small scream and stumbled back.

"No, you're…how. You…"

"It's ok Suzanne. It's me."

"But how…?"

"Suzanne? Are you all right?" came a concerned voice. Suzanne's eyes widened, and she turned, trying to find an explanation before…

And then Serenity and Williard came into the hall, and Suzanne faltered. Too late.

For a moment the three just stared at each other, Serenity and Williard in sheer shock, and Merer as if he was deciding whether to stand or run away.

And then Serenity came forward, slowly, as if expecting Merer to vanish. Slowly, she reached up and touched the terrible burn on the side of his face.

"………..Merer?"

"………………………Hi Mom."

And then  Serenity broke down as she fell apon her son, holding him as if she would never let him go and weeping openly.

"It's ok Mother. I'm back."

"….No…MY SON! MY SON!" Williard said as he ran over and joined in the embrace. Merer hugged his father too.

Suzanne just stared, wondered if she was dreaming, barely seeing the black and blue medabot walk in the door behind Merer and stand next to her, holding a pair of sunglasses and looking quite happy.

But she recognized the medabot. Years ago, she had thrown it out…even after it made, at the time, a foolish and hopeless vow…

"….Starlight?"

"Once…and maybe once again…" Starkiller said, as she watched the family reunion. 

"You brought him back."

"I said I would." Starkiller said. _War is over. Time for peace._

"My son…how…they told us you were dead? What happened? Where have you been?"

"There're time for that later Dad. But I'll tell you. It's a long tale…but in the end it has no real point. Only this does." 

Merer wiped away a tear.

"I'm home."

BOOHOOHOOHOOHOO! BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!! That is just so….WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! (Snort) Ok, I'm better now. Well, now that Merer has finished his quest, it's time to tally up the stats!

_Starkiller, the ultimate medabot designed by the genius medabot prodigy Merer "Flute" Pimon, defeats Whitesword, Gokudo, Spidar, Landmotor, Sumilidon, Peppercat, Totalizer, Cyandog, Kanteroth, Arcbeatle, and a whole bunch of other medabots, BUT_

_Ultimately falls to fellow prodigy Ikki and Metabee, courtesy of the Medaforce!_

_Good thing too, as that snapped Merer out of his funk, and allowed him and Starkiller, along with Metabee, Sumilidon, Kanteroth, Peppercat, Totalizer, Cyandog (and Crosserdog!), Rokusho, Brass, and Neutranurse, to defeat the Rubberrobos M-Bots and Meta-Evil's Omni-Emporer!_

_So, ultimately, the good guys win! Thanks for reading!_

MORE MEDABOTS, MORE POWER! 

The End


End file.
